


Nakama

by piratesPencil



Category: One Piece
Genre: Ableism, Abuse, Backstory, Blind Character, Christmas, Dismemberment, Execution, F/M, False Identity, Family, Fluff, Future Fic, Gen, Gender Identity, Gender Presentation, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Multi, Nakama, Pirates, Polyamory, Scars, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Worth Issues, Swordfighting, Water 7, mentions of past non-con, only the final chapter is nsfw, sanji's left eye, sunnyshipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2018-09-15 09:36:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 22,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9228974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piratesPencil/pseuds/piratesPencil
Summary: nakama(仲間)noun1. colleague, compatriot, friend or comrade2. the Straw Hat piratesA collection of short One Piece fics.





	1. Behind a Mask (Usopp & Franky)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a lot of One Piece fics in 2011-2014, and I still like a lot of what I wrote, so I thought I'd repost some slightly updated versions of them here.  
> New chapter every week or so.
> 
> (You can read all my old fics on my ff.net, [here](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/2933181/XXCaptainUsoppXX).)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usopp wondered what it would be like to hide behind a mask like Franky's. He wondered if he would feel more powerful, more detached... and so Sogeking was born.

_**Water 7, in the warehouse under the bridge…** _

“ _That’s so sad!”_  the massive blue-haired man wailed.

Usopp didn’t answer, frowning as he worked on the _Merry Go_.

“It’s too much! Oh, man, you’re breaking my heart!” cried the man, who'd said his name was Franky. The two strange women who accompanied Franky were weeping loudly as well. “You actually split from your friends you’d travelled with from the East Blue over a ship?”

“Oh, stop crying already!” Usopp snapped, turning to face them.

Franky loudly denied he’d been crying as he sobbed into a handkerchief. Usopp grumbled and turned back to the ship. He cringed when the man pulled out a guitar and started singing a ridiculous song.

“Are you making fun of me?” Usopp demanded.

Needless to say, he wasn’t in a very good mood. Hadn’t been for a while.

“I’m sorry, bro,” Franky said. He put away his guitar as Usopp turned back to the ship. “You must be pretty mad about the 200 million berries we stole… not to mention the beat-down we gave you.”

Usopp didn’t answer right away. He was in a foul mood, but somehow he didn’t feel all that angry with this strange man. Franky was annoying, but seemed nothing like the masked gang leader Usopp had met the day before. That man’s words still rang in Usopp’s ears.

_I feel sorry for Straw Hat Luffy… if the only one he had to guard the money was a good-for-nothing crewman like you!_

Those words had been far more painful for Usopp than the cruel beating he’d suffered afterwards. They had confirmed what Usopp had feared for a long time now: that he was a weak and useless crewman. Those words, perhaps even more than Luffy’s disloyalty to Merry, had led to Usopp leaving the Straw Hat crew.

And yet he couldn’t bring himself to hate the man who’d taken him and his ship into this grungy hideout, sheltering them from the approaching Aqua Laguna.

“What happened, happened,” Usopp finally answered. “There’s no point in holding a grudge.”

Except that was a lie. Usopp did hold grudges. He still held a grudge against Captain Kuro for threatening Kaya’s life. He still held a grudge against his father for not being there when his mother died, although that was a grudge he held secretly, deep inside himself.

“That’s real decent of you!” Franky said. “Although I should tell you, about that 200 million… We used it all up!”

Glowering, Usopp turned to Franky and his ridiculous backup dancers.

“I will kill you,” he growled, gritting his teeth.

But in all honesty he had no desire to kill or even hurt this man. He wanted to hurt the masked gang leader who’d cut deep with his words.

It was funny how that mask had made Franky seem like such a different person. He wondered if Franky had felt different with the mask, too. Meaner. More powerful. More detached, like he could do and say whatever he wanted without repercussion.

Usopp felt a twinge in his stomach, wondering what that would feel like.

 

* * *

 

**_On the roof of the Puffing Tom…_ **

“C’mon, Long Nose, let’s go save Robin!” Franky called to him.

Usopp looked away.

“I’ll… stay here…” he said softly.

He could feel Sanji and Franky’s eyes boring into him, shocked.

“…I don’t have any obligation to save Robin. She’s not my nakama anymore… I quit the crew, remember? Goodbye…”

And Usopp walked away, not turning around when Franky called, “ _Goodbye?_ Listen, man, there’s nowhere for you to run!”

The rain and wind were so loud in Usopp’s ears, he wasn’t sure if he imagined Sanji saying, “It’s fine. Leave him alone.”

Usopp descended back into the car they’d just left. He felt confused, cowardly, and angry. Angry with himself.

 _What the hell was that?_ a voice from inside his head demanded. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard that voice. _Abandoning your nakama?_

“She’s not my nakama anymore,” Usopp repeated. “I quit the crew.”

 _Ha! And you think that makes it okay to abandon a damsel in distress?_ the voice said, mocking him. _How can you ever hope to become a brave warrior if you give up when you get the chance to shine?_

Usopp gritted his teeth. He’d never been good at dealing with this voice, this voice that came to him whenever he was most unsure. When he was younger, he used to imagine it was his dad, pushing him to become stronger, braver.

Now, he was just confused.

“I can’t!” Usopp finally wailed. “I can’t go save Robin! I can’t fight the government! I’m… I’m scared…”

 _Coward_ , the voice said.

“If you’re so brave, why don’t you save Robin?” Usopp shouted, fists clenched at his sides.

 _Alright_ , the voice answered, sending a chill down the sniper’s spine.

That was when he noticed the mask. Yellow and blue, rather flamboyant, it stood out from the rest of the disguises piled up in this storage car.

The sniper reached out and slipped the mask over his face. It fit perfectly, as if it had been made especially for his head, complete with a convenient hole for his long nose. He draped a red cape over his shoulders, also courtesy of the Cipher Pol’s spare disguises.

Then he climbed back up onto the roof the sea train. Sanji and Franky were still there, their voices muffled by the rain and wind.

Suddenly, a marine poked his head up from one of the train’s windows and spotted Sanji and Franky.

“I found them!” the marine shouted.

He barely had a chance to finish his sentence before he was shot down by the sniper, falling into the ocean below.

Sanji and Franky whirled around to face the sniper, surprised. “ _Who’s that?_ ”

“I heard the whole story from _him_ ,” the sniper declared. “You want to save a young lady, do you?”

Sanji and Franky stared at him, confused, as he approached, arms crossed.

“I need no particular reason to lend you a hand in your endeavour! I shall fight alongside you!”

From behind the mask, Usopp did indeed feel very different. More confident. More powerful. More detached, like he could do and say whatever he wanted without repercussion.

He didn’t feel like himself. He felt like the brave voice that had always been in the back of his mind.

So he wasn’t at all surprised when he opened his mouth and declared, “My name is _Sogeking_ …”


	2. Noses (Usopp & Chopper)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chopper is self-concious about his blue nose. A certain long nosed crewman with his own insecurities helps him out.
> 
> (Set just after Chopper joins the crew.)

Usopp strolled past the bathroom door, humming under his breath. The door was half open, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of brown fur.

The sniper shuddered. So far, Chopper had proved to be a kind, caring person… except was he really a person? The man-reindeer still kind of scared Usopp, especially when he transformed into that monstrous “human” form…

He poked his head into the room, curious about the little reindeer in spite of himself.

When Chopper saw Usopp over his shoulder in the mirror, he jumped and tried to hide behind the sink.

“I can see you,” Usopp pointed out.

Chopper shifted so he was properly hidden, but Usopp could still see the little creature peeking at him curiously. The sniper bent down and picked up the small container that Chopper had dropped in surprise.

“Black shoe polish…” he read.

Chopper seemed to blush beneath his fur and ducked further behind the sink, but not before Usopp noticed the black smudge on Chopper’s nose.

“Hey…” Usopp said. “Were you…?”

He reached out and dragged the reindeer out of his hiding place by the scruff of his neck. Chopper squeaked and tried to run away, but Usopp grabbed his arm firmly and spun him around.

“You were trying to paint your nose black?” Usopp asked, tentatively touching Chopper’s cold nose.

Chopper clapped his hooves over his face. “Yes,” he whispered.

“Why?”

“Because I have a weird blue nose!” Chopper wailed, his wide eyes shiny with tears. “I’m already weird enough, a man-reindeer in a crew full of humans. I thought I could at least be a man reindeer with a normal nose!”

Usopp frowned at Chopper, then rubbed the shoe polish off of the blue nose with the back of his hand.

“Your nose is cool,” Usopp told him firmly. “You should never be ashamed of it.”

“For real?” Chopper sniffled, pawing away a tear.

“Of course!" Usopp puffed out his chest, putting on his best show of confident bravado. "You don’t see the Great Captain Usopp complaining about his nose, do you?”

Chopper stared up at Usopp, wide eyed. “I think your nose is cool, too,” he whispered.

“Of cour… hm?” Usopp's shoulders fell, his confident pose melting away. “Really?”

“Yeah!”

“You don’t think it’s too long… or weird? The way it bends?” Usopp poked awkwardly at his nose in demonstration, bending the tip.

“Nope! I think it’s really neat!” Chopper said. He reached up with one hoof and gently poked Usopp’s nose, too.

Usopp grinned down at his crewmate, laughed.

“Yeah, okay!” Usopp declared, confident and loud. He scooped Chopper up and set him squarely on his shoulders. “We have the coolest noses in the world!”


	3. Did It Hurt? (Luffy & Zoro)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy and Zoro discuss their scars. Post-timeskip drabble.

It was a particularly hot day, though on the Grand Line, that could change at any moment. Most of the crew had shed their shirts, and Nami had stripped down to a skimpy bikini that had Sanji drooling into the cool drinks he'd just prepared.

Luffy sat perched on the railing of the ship's deck, chin resting on his fist as he watched Zoro lift impossibly heavy weights. The white sunlight made sweat glisten across the swordsman's body, and his endless collection of scars stood out sharply. Luffy jumped down from his perch and approached his first mate.

"What's up?" Zoro grunted, letting his weights drop to the grassy deck.

Luffy didn't answer. Instead, he reached out his left hand and touched the massive scar that slashed across Zoro's bare chest. With his other hand, he reached up and brushed the scar that cut deeply across Zoro's closed left eye.

Zoro froze under Luffy's unexpected touch, cool hands against his sweaty body.

"Did it hurt?" Luffy asked abruptly.

"Huh?"

"Did it hurt?" Luffy repeated. "When you got these scars?"

Zoro's first instinct was to puff out his chest proudly and deny it. But the intensity of Luffy's gaze made him hesitate.

"...Yeah," he admitted finally. "Kinda. A lot."

"Hmm," Luffy answered, unimpressed.

Before Luffy could pull away, Zoro reached out and placed his hands on Luffy's scars, too. The rough pink cross in the center of his chest and the old scar below his left eye.

"Did these hurt?" he asked his captain.

Luffy didn't answer for a moment, silently looking up into Zoro's single open eye.

Then he grinned, and laughed. "Nope! Didn't hurt a bit!"

Zoro pulled away. "Good," he said, smiling. "You have to be tough to become King of the Pirates."


	4. A Good Story (Usopp & Sanji)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usopp is curious about Sanji's hidden left eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the timeskip disproves any “left side of Sanji’s face” theories, but I can still dream, right?

Usopp snuck towards Sanji’s hammock, holding his breath so as not to wake the sleeping cook. He was on a mission - a mission to discover the secret he was certain the cook was hiding. While the rest of the crew seemed pointedly uninterested in whatever Sanji was hiding behind his conspicuous bangs, Usopp was sure there was a good story hidden there.

“ _The Great Captain Usopp will find out!_ ” he thought. “ _As long as Sanji doesn’t kill the Great Captain Usopp first._ ”

Still holding his breath and moving as slowly as possible, Usopp leaned over the cook and reached, reached, reeeaaached towards those blonde bangs…

The moment Usopp’s fingers brushed Sanji’s hair, the cook’s hand shot up and closed with a viper’s grip around Usopp’s wrist.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Sanji growled, his visible eye still closed.

Usopp whimpered. He was going to die.

“I… I wasn’t trying to look at the left side of your face!” he yelped, then immediately wanted to smack himself for being such an idiot.

Sanji’s eye opened and he glared up at the sniper, his gaze full of fire. Usopp whimpered again.

“ _I’m sorry Kaya!_ ” he wailed silently. “ _I’m going to die here! I’ll never get a chance to come back and tell you all about my adven-_ ”

Sanji dropped Usopp’s arm, and the sniper squeezed his eyes shut, his legs shaking uncontrollably. His time had come, and…

“You could have just asked.”

Usopp’s eyes snapped open. He stared down at Sanji, wide-eyed.

“Wha…” he croaked. His throat had gone dry in his panic.

“I _said_ , you could have just asked,” Sanji repeatedly irritably.

He didn’t say anything more, and Usopp hesitantly reached towards his face. When he was fairly sure this wasn’t a trick and Sanji wasn’t about to murder him, Usopp gently brushed aside the golden bangs. His breath caught in his throat at what was hidden underneath.

Sanji cringed at Usopp’s reaction, but Usopp didn't pull away, and Sanji's face softened, just a little.

“W-what happened to you?” Usopp asked softly, staring.

Several ugly gashes cut across the left side of the cook’s face, scarred over but still very obvious. One particularly nasty scar cut straight across Sanji’s left eye. The eye itself was bisected by a white line that slashed down the middle of the pupil. It was unfocused, clearly blind.

Sanji gently pushed away Usopp’s hand, letting his hair fall back over his face. He hung his head, not meeting Usopp’s eyes as he spoke.

“I was working in the kitchen on a ship - not the Baratie, another ship before that - and the head cook… he was an ugly shithead.” Sanji snarled that last part, reaching into his pocket for a pack of cigarettes. “The shitty old man kept telling me how pretty I was. At first it seemed like compliment. Then it got creepy.” He shook out a cigarette, lit it, took a deep drag.

“What did he do to you?” Usopp whispered. His stomach twisted sickly as his imagination raced ahead of Sanji’s story.

“He pulled me out into the hall one night, after everyone had gone to sleep. The ugly shit-cook told me it wasn’t fair that someone could be so pretty. ‘So I’m gonna fix that,’ he said.” Sanji’s voice was venomous, angry. He pulled more smoke into his lungs. “He… he pulled out a knife. And…”

“And made you ugly?” Usopp asked, then slapped a hand over his mouth as he realized what he’d said.

Sanji let out a bark of bitter laughter.

“Yeah. Made half my face ugly.”

For a moment, Usopp stared silently down at the angry cook. Then he plopped down next to Sanji, making the hammock sway.

“Hey,” Sanji protested.

Usopp reached down and, quickly, before Sanji could push him away, moved the bangs aside once more.

“H-hey!” Sanji's voice trailed off as Usopp’s thumb gently rubbed the largest scar, brushing the cook’s eyelid.

“I don’t think he made you ugly,” Usopp said softly. “I think he made you… more interesting.”

Sanji snorted bitterly and pulled away from the sniper’s touch. He turned his head, looking away to hide the blush that spread across his fair skin, but his shoulders seemed to sag with something like relief.

Usopp lay back, shoving Sanji a bit to make room.

“I mean, you and Zoro are so lucky!” he said. “I wish I had cool scars. You know, to show that I’m a real warrior.”

Lying side by side in the narrow hammock, it was hard to kick Usopp, but Sanji managed to smash his heel into the sniper’s shin.

“Ow!” Usopp complained. “What was that for?”

“Thanks,” Sanji said softly.

“What?”

“Thanks. I think I needed to tell someone about that.”

“Why not Nami or Robin?” Usopp suggested. “Girls like tragic stories like that. In fact-”

Sanji kicked Usopp’s shin again.

“Ow!”

“Don’t you dare tell anyone about this! _Especially_ the girls.”

“About your eye, you mean?”

“Yeah. And about… this,” Sanji added, waving his hands vaguely to indicated himself and the sniper.

“Ooohhh…” Usopp mumbled, his cheeks warming as he realized just how close he was to the cook. Their heads, their arms, their legs were touching. “Do you want me to leave? Or…”

“No,” Sanji interrupted. “It’s okay. I guess.”

He took another drag from his cigarette and looked away from the sniper again.

Usopp shifted slightly, getting more comfortable, and smiled. He’d been right. There was a good story hidden behind those golden bangs.

Of course, the Great Captain Usopp was always right.


	5. Reunion (Usopp & Yasopp)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usopp and Yasopp's long-awaited reunion is more bittersweet than either father or son would have expected.

Usopp fired repeatedly into the crowd of enemy pirates that rushed onto the deck of the _Thousand Sunny_ , shouting and brandishing their weapons. In the rain and the darkness of the storm, it was impossible to see the insignia of the enemy’s Jolly Roger.

The pounding rain prevented the sniper from using fire attacks, but he had a variety of other ammo at his disposal. He pulled back his arm, stretching Kabuto’s elastics taunt. Before he could release his attack, though, a bullet whizzed past his face and snapped three of the slingshot’s elastics.

Usopp froze for a moment, shocked. That had to have been a coincidence. Who could have aimed accurately enough to break his weapon? Especially in the thick of this storm, with visibility next to zero.

Then panic took over. Usopp couldn’t fight without his weapon. His old, smaller slingshot was in his workshop, where he’d been making modifications to it. There was no time to retrieve it now.

The sniper dropped Kabuto on the ship’s deck, then tore furiously through his bag for another weapon, anything. He pulled out his old gag hammer, a remake of the one he’d used in Alabasta. It was hardly as good as a slingshot, but it was all he had.

He charged through the crowd, swinging the hammer wildly and knocking pirates aside, screaming at the top of his lungs. His own screams, along with the raging storm and the sounds of battle, nearly drowned out the sudden shouts.

“ _Luffy!_ ”

“ _Shanks!_ ”

The fighting stopped instantly.

Both crews turned to see their captains grab each other in a tight hug, laughing and dancing in the pouring rain.

* * *

The two crews crowded into the _Sunny_ ’s galley, pushing and shoving to fit everyone. Sanji had to kick a few pirates out of the way to get to the fridge, and began pulling out food to prepare the feast his captain had demanded.

“Today is a day to celebrate!” Red-Haired Shanks shouted, standing atop the galley’s table with his arm around Luffy’s shoulders.

“Yeah!” Straw Hat Luffy shouted in reply, looking up at his idol with wide, laughing eyes.

Shouting, dancing and drinking ensued, both crews in wild high spirits.

But Usopp stood frozen near the galley door, eyes raking the packed crowd.

“Where is he?” Usopp whispered, tapping twitchy fingers against his thigh. “I know I’ll recognize him when I see him…” His voice caught in his throat. His eyes locked on a man leaning against the counter, laughing and drinking. He had blonde dreads and a name tattooed across his arm. _Yasopp_.

As if he could feel Usopp’s eyes on him, the blonde man put down his drink and looked up.

Their eyes met.

Yasopp began to push his way through the crowd, rushing towards his son as if afraid the boy might disappear before his eyes.

Usopp stayed frozen in place. A wave of excitement and joy washed over him at the sight of his father. The man he could barely remember from his earliest memories, the man he had always wanted to meet. His father.

“Dad!”

“Usopp!”

And Usopp threw himself into his father arms, clutching the back of his cape and squeezing him in a tight embrace. He buried his face in the older man’s shirt, trying to hide the tears of joy that leaked past his eyelids.

“My kid…” Yasopp whispered, placing a hand on the top of his son’s head.

The two men stayed like that for a long time, as the party raged on inside the galley and the storm pounded outside. The wind whistled loudly, screeching. Vaguely, in the back of his mind, the screeching reminded Usopp of a story he’d once told Kaya, about a banshee. That mythical creature who signaled the death of someone dear to you…

Suddenly, fiercely, Usopp pulled out of his father’s tight embrace.

“Wha-” Yasopp’s question was cut short. Usopp’s fist connected violently with the man’s jaw, sending Yasopp stumbling back against the wall.

“Hey, what the hell?” a half-drunk Shanks shouted from his place at the table.

Heads turned towards the father and son as Usopp pulled back his fist and socked Yasopp in the face again, and again.

“She died, you bastard!” Usopp screamed. “You left us all alone and she died without ever seeing you again!”

“She… Banchina?” Yasopp asked, incredulous, then cringed as his son’s foot connected with his ribs. “Banchina died?”

“She died years ago, just withered away without you!” Usopp shouted, pounding on this man who had left his wife and his son and never looked back. “And I was all alone! Who leaves a little kid all alone? Who expects a little kid to take care of himself? I had _no one_ and you never spared me a second thought!”

“That’s not true!” Luffy yelled, jumping to his feet. “He talked about you all the time, Usopp. He said-”

“ _Shut up, Luffy_!” Usopp screamed, rounding on his captain.

His face was wet with tears and red with anger. His fists were clenched and bloody from breaking Yasopp’s nose.

“Banchina died?” Yasopp asked again. His voice was low. He sat at his son’s feet, bruised, blood streaming from his nose. “Oh, God, no. She died?”

He stumbled to his feet and grabbed Usopp from behind, holding him in a crushing hug.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered into Usopp’s hair. “I’m so sorry.”

Usopp didn’t say anything more. He closed his eyes and slumped into his father’s hug, wondered if he’d ever truly be able to forgive this man he’d thought he so admired.


	6. Exceptions (Usopp/Luffy, Usopp & Zoro)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "We all do things to make Luffy happy."
> 
> Usopp and Zoro discuss their captain, and the exceptions they'll make for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let’s pretend the Straw Hats spent at least one night on the coated ship together before getting to Fishman Island. That’s when this story is set.

Usopp lay stretched out in his wooden hammock, enjoying that calm moment between waking and sleeping. It was the crew’s first night back together, but he was alone in the boys' room, so it was abnormally quiet for a night on the Thousand Sunny.

Chopper was in the infirmary with Sanji, who’d suffered another serious nosebleed after supper, when Nami mentioned she was going to go take a bath. Franky was doing some kind of maintenance to the ship, making some final tweaks to a mysterious weapon he’d been working on since arriving back on Sabaody. Brook was probably trying to steal a peek at the girls’ underwear.

He wasn’t sure where Luffy and Zoro were. Something twisted in his stomach at the thought of what they might be doing, together.

And then the door to the room burst open and a flurry of rubbery arms and legs launched itself at the sniper’s hammock.

“Ooof! Luffy?”

Luffy shoved Usopp over enough to make room for himself, then nuzzled his head into the crook of Usopp's neck.

“Chopper said Sanji is sick and he can’t make me any meat,” Luffy whined.

Some kind of relief washed over Usopp. So Luffy had been begging for meat. Not with Zoro.

Usopp ran a hand through his captain messy hair, smiled. It was an amazing feeling, to know that Luffy was physically here, with him, in the flesh, after so much time apart.

“You got strong!” Luffy said, his stretchy arms wrapped around Usopp’s broad chest.

Usopp grinned. “A brave warrior of the sea has to be strong for his captain!”

“And your hair got really big, too,” he said, and reached up to yank out Usopp’s ponytail.

“Hey!” Usopp protested as dark curls sprang free, falling around his face and shoulders.

Luffy giggled and ran his fingers through the curls, then suddenly pulled Usopp’s face close to his own. Usopp closed his eyes and melted into his captain’s powerful, if sloppy, kiss.

“I missed you,” Usopp whispered as they pulled apart.

Luffy answered with another wet, sloppy, wonderfully Luffy-like kiss. All the pain and sadness of those two years apart seeped away as Usopp pulled his captain closer.

* * *

 

Luffy lay sprawled out across Usopp’s chest, his stomach rising and falling in time to his snores. Usopp gently ran his fingers along the harsh pink scar on Luffy's chest. It stood out sharply in the room’s dim light. A deep crater, as if a huge chunk of flesh had been torn away.

Usopp froze when the door to the room slammed open for the second time that night.

Zoro pulled off his boots and tromped across the room towards his hammock.

“Hey,” he grunted, glancing over at Usopp and Luffy.

“Hi,” Usopp squeaked, though this wasn’t the first time he’d been caught far too close to his captain.

“Mind if I join?” Zoro asked, coming to sit on the edge of Usopp’s hammock.

“What? We weren’t doing anything!” Usopp blurted. “We- we kissed, but I swear we didn’t do anything else! I don't... I'm not...”

“You're not gay. Fine. Relax.”

Usopp frowned, rubbed his temple. “I dunno. I just spent the last hour…”

“Luffy doesn’t count,” Zoro stated bluntly. He reached out and ruffled the sleeping boy’s hair. "We're all in love with Luffy."

Usopp's eyes widened and he felt his face heat up. He wasn't surprised to hear those words from Zoro, not exactly. Maybe a little bit. He muttered something vague, embarrassed, continued to trace the rough scar on Luffy’s chest. “Do you know how he got this scar?” he asked.

“Probably during the war.”

“Oh, yeah… How about you? Where'd you get that scar?”

“Mihawk,” Zoro grunted.

Usopp rolled his eyes. “I know. I didn’t mean that one. I meant the one on your eye.”

“Mihawk,” Zoro repeated.

Usopp’s eyes widened. “You fought with _Mihawk_ during these past two years?”

“I trained with him,” Zoro corrected.

“You _trained_ with him? Wow. No wonder you got so strong.”

Zoro almost grinned at that. “Whoever you trained with did a pretty good job on you, too,” he said.

“Yeah… Heracles-un was a great teacher-un. I’ll miss him-un.”

“What?”

“Uh, never mind,” Usopp said, looked away quickly. His messy curls sprang up and into his face again.

“You grew your hair out,” Zoro observed, as if he’d only just noticed.

“Yeah. It gets in the way if I don’t tie if back, but Luffy-”

“Why don’t you just cut it, then?” Zoro asked. He reached for one of his swords.

“What? No!” Usopp protested, jerking away from Zoro.

“Why not?”

“Because… because Luffy likes it.”

Zoro raised an eyebrow.

“Back home I used to keep it pretty short, but after I joined the crew Luffy told me he liked my hair and… I haven’t cut it since then.”

Zoro snorted.

“What? I… I _could_ cut it… I…”

Zoro stood up, stretched, headed for his hammock. “It’s okay,” he said as he settled into his own bed. “It’s okay to make exceptions for Luffy. We all do things to make Luffy happy.”

“What do you do?” Usopp asked, curious.

Zoro didn’t answer, but Usopp could have sworn he saw the stoic swordsman smile before he rolled over and pulled a pillow over his head.


	7. I'm Not Going To Fight You (Zoro & Mihawk)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "One armed or one eyed… I won't fight a man who's handicapped."
> 
> Mihawk's reaction to Zoro's newest scar.

Mihawk’s blade was aimed for Zoro’s head. If it connected, it would cleave his skull cleanly in two.

Zoro ducked and dodged, but didn't quite avoid the blow. Instead it cut deeply into the left side of his face, slicing into his eye. An animalistic roar of pain tore from Zoro’s throat, escaped past his teeth clenched around Wadou’s hilt.

Perona screamed from where she floated in the corner of the training hall. She clapped a hand over her mouth, sick at the sight of the thick red blood that streamed down Zoro’s face.

Neither swordsman so much as hesitated, though. Their fierce battle continued. Mihawk’s idea of training wasn’t to _teach_ Zoro, but rather to push the young swordsman to his limits in increasingly intense confrontations.

It was exactly the sort of training Zoro wanted and expected.

Their battle ended, as it had every day since Zoro’s training began, with Mihawk’s sword at Zoro’s throat, one flick of his wrist away from killing his student. Zoro was heaving, his body sticky with blood and sweat. He met Mihawk’s intense gaze for a moment before dropping his swords to the floor with a loud metallic clang.

Mihawk stepped away from Zoro and sheathed his sword.

“Get Perona to take care of that eye,” he said before he swept out of the room.

“I’m not a nurse!” Perona screeched after him. Then she turned to Zoro, who was pressing the heel of his hand to his heavily bleeding left eye. “Fine. Come to the infirmary,” she grumbled.

Zoro silently followed her swooping ghostly form out of the training hall.

 

* * *

 

“What the hell are you doing?” Zoro roared. He jerked away from Perona.

“Sit down,” Perona snapped. She held up a needle and thread. “I’ve sewn up your wounds before.”

“Yeah, but you can’t sew up my _eye_. How the hell will I be able to see?”

Perona rolled her eyes. “Negative Hollow!” Her ghosts launched themselves at the swordsman’s chest.

Zoro fell to his knees.

“I’m sorry I was born,” he moaned. “I hope I’m reborn as a perverted love-cook.”

Perona shoved Zoro’s limp body into a sitting position and took advantage of his despondent state to begin sewing up the deep wound in his face.

“You won’t be able to see out of this eye, anyways,” she explained. “Mihawk totally messed up your eye.”

“What?” Zoro shouted, snapped out of his hollow-induced depression.

“Don’t move! And yeah. Mihawk blinded your left side.”

With his remaining eye, Zoro stared at Perona’s smirking face for a moment.

Then he shrugged. “At least I have another one.”

“ _What_? It doesn’t make you mad?” Perona shrieked, incredulous.

Zoro shrugged again. “It’s what I signed up for,” he said. “I didn’t expect to escape Mihawk unscathed. As long as I get stronger, I’ll sacrifice anything.”

“Stupid un-cute swordsman,” Perona grumbled as she dressed the stitched-up wound. “No fun. Nothing ever bothers you.”

 

* * *

 

A week later, Zoro appeared in the doorway of the training hall, gripping the hilt of one of his swords. Mihawk was carefully polishing his blade, his back to the door.

“What are you doing here?” Mihawk asked, not turning around.

“I’m here to train.”

“No,” Mihawk answered flatly.

“Perona said the wound’s healed enough. I’m more than ready to start training again.”

“I’m not going to train you anymore.”

“What?” Zoro demanded. His fists clenched. “But it hasn’t even been a year yet! I need to be as strong as I can be when I reunite with Luffy.”

“Your training has ended,” Mihawk said, finally turning to face his student. “One armed or one eyed… I won’t fight a man who’s handicapped.”

Zoro unsheathed a sword with lightning speed and threw himself at his teacher. “Then it’s a damn good thing losing an eye didn’t make me handicapped!” he roared.

The sound of blades crashing into each other echoed through the training hall as Mihawk blocked his student’s blow.

“I won’t fight you,” Mihawk repeated, his voice as low and even as ever.

“Too bad,” Zoro replied. His face twisted into a grin filled with bloodlust and adrenaline. “Because I’m going to fight you.”

 

* * *

 

“I’m not going to fight you, Roronoa.”

Those became the words that triggered the swordsmen’s battles every day, until they became nothing more than a habit. The rest of the two years passed in a rush of clanking swords and traded blows, until the day came for Zoro to set off back to Sabaody and reunite with his crew.

“You had a boat all along and we never went anywhere?” Perona shrieked. The three of them had rounded a high, rocky cliff and come upon a fairly large ship.

“Yes,” Mihawk said flatly.

It occurred to Zoro that they had never wondered how Mihawk had arrived at the island after the Marineford War. The war that had stolen Luffy’s brother from him.

Zoro frowned, wondered what Luffy would be like after these two years apart. What the whole crew would be like. How much they had changed.

He’d changed, too. A few more scars, a blind spot to cover and a huge leap closer to achieving his dream. He wasn’t the same Roronoa Zoro he had been on Sabaody two years before. He was stronger, and he was sure his crewmates had become stronger, too.

They would be stronger pirates, but they would still be the Straw Hat pirates. Theirs was a bond that a few years could never break.

“Hurry up, you guys!” Perona shouted from the ship’s deck.

Zoro grabbed the ship’s railing and swung himself up onto the deck next to Perona.

“You coming?” he asked, looking down at Mihawk.

The master swordsman shook his head, then tossed an Eternal Pose up to his student.

“Alright, then. Let’s go, Perona,” Zoro said, turning to her.

“What? Aren’t you going to say goodbye to him?” she demanded.

“Why? It’s not like we’ll never see each other again,” Zoro answered. He held up the Eternal Pose. “How do you use this thing, anyways?”

“When are you going to see Mihawk again?” Perona asked, smirking as though he was being ridiculous.

Zoro frowned at her. “I have to defeat him someday. To become the world’s greatest swordsman.”

“I’m not going to fight you, Roronoa,” Mihawk called to Zoro.

Zoro looked down at his teacher of two years. The master swordsman almost seemed to be smiling.

“I know,” Zoro replied, allowing himself a small grin as well. “I’m going to fight you.”


	8. Chill (Usopp/Nami)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It takes a conversation with Usopp to help Nami shake the chill that has settled in her bones since a certain event at Thriller Bark...

_The revolting scrape of a rough tongue lapping her naked body. Strong hands gripping her wrists and shoving her against the cold stone wall. The terror of being attacked, violated, by something she knew was there but couldn’t see._

Nami woke up in a cold sweat, the memory of the invisible man fresh in her mind. She took several deep, shuddering breaths. Her hands were shaking.

She crept out of bed, quietly so as not to wake Robin, and slipped out into the cool night. The fresh smell of the ocean, the grass and the tangerines cleared her head a bit.

She glanced up at the crow’s nest, wondered who was on watch. Then she swung onto the ladder and began to climb up.  _I’ll relieve whoever’s on watch_ , she thought. _They’ll appreciate it. And I can raise their debt._

She was _not_ , she told herself, climbing up there because she wanted company.

Usopp sat in the middle of the crow’s nest, tinkering with some gadget. He glanced over at her when as she hoisted herself up and into the room.

“Hey,” he said, then went back to his tinkering. “My watch doesn’t end for another couple hours, you know.”

“I know." She wrapped her hands around her bare arms. “I figured I’d relieve you early.”

Usopp raised an eyebrow at her. “There’s no way I’m paying you to take my place, so you can forget about it.”

Nami huffed and leaned against a windowed wall.

Usopp continued to mess around with his gadget. When Nami didn’t press the issue, he asked, “Couldn’t sleep?”

Nami gave a non-committal shrug and turned to look out the window. They had left the foggy waters of the Florian Triangle several days ago, but she couldn’t shrug off the chill that had settled in her bones on Thriller Bark. She smiled slightly at the thought of the skull jokes their newest crewmate would make of that.

“Are you cold?” Usopp asked, noticing her shiver. “You could take a warm bath.”

Nami’s breath caught in her throat and she turned back to face Usopp, rubbing her bare arms. “I… no.”

Usopp finally put down his gadget, and motioned for Nami to sit down next to him. “You okay?” he asked.

“Why? What makes you think I’m not okay?” Nami demanded, but she did sit down next to Usopp.

“You didn’t beat me up when I refused to pay you,” he pointed out.

Nami scowled and smacked him upside the head.

“Ow, hey!”

“There, how’s that?”

Usopp returned her scowl and rubbed the back of his head.

“So, _are_ you okay?” he pressed. “You seem… sad, or something.”

Nami pulled her knees up to her chest and let out a huff of frustrated breath. “I just… keep thinking about Thriller Bark,” she admitted.

Usopp shuddered. “Yeah, me too. I never thought I’d see _real_ zombies… but I guess with all the stuff we’ve seen so far on the Grand Line, I shouldn’t be surprised. And ghosts, too! Hey, have I told you how I defeated the ghost princess?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Nami interrupted before he could launch into his tale. “You’ve told all of us. Several times.”

Usopp huffed and pouted a bit. “Well, you’re lucky you were knocked out for so long. You hardly had to fight anyone, and-”

“Oh, yeah. I’m _so_ lucky,” Nami said, and her voice dripped with bitter sarcasm. “I was just off being forcibly married to a perverted creep.”

Usopp looked away sheepishly. “Oh. Right.”

A pause, and then he glanced over at her hesitantly. “So… I guess you’re pretty happy Sanji came and saved you, eh?”

Nami rolled her eyes. “Sanji keeps telling me he came to save me, but I had to take care of that freak on my own.”

Usopp raised an eyebrow. That certainly wasn’t the version of the story he’d heard from Sanji.

“But that wasn’t really the worst part,” Nami continued. Her voice had softened. “It was… well, when I was in the bath… and…”

Usopp remembered Nami’s shriek from the bath in Hogback’s mansion. He felt himself blush slightly when he remembered the sight he’d burst in on. “So there really was an invisible guy in there? And he… grabbed you in the bath?”

Nami didn’t answer, but the look of disgust on her face was answer enough.

“Sick creep,” Usopp growled.

Nami was surprised to hear the anger in Usopp’s voice.

“Yeah, well-”

“Did I ever tell you,” Usopp interrupted suddenly, picking up the gadget he’d been working on. “About the brave warrior Armadillo?”

Nami snorted. “The brave warrior _Armadillo_?”

“Sure! Armadillos are great animals. They have built-in armour. Really useful."

Nami snorted again, but let Usopp dive into his story.

“Okay. So the brave warrior Armadillo lived in the peaceful kingdom of Merry Land. Merry Land was famous for having the most beautiful princess anyone had ever seen, and men were constantly coming to the castle to ask for the princess’ hand. But the princess turned down every man- none of them were rich enough for her.”

Nami smirked and scooted closer to Usopp, still rubbing her arms.

“One day, though, an evil wizard came to the castle. He was a very powerful wizard, and when the princess turned down his proposal of marriage, he refused to give up. _If the princess won’t accept my proposal, then I’ll have to kidnap her,_ he decided.”

Usopp gave the wizard a silly, lilting voice, and Nami snickered. Usopp looked over at her and grinned, and this time he scooted closer to her.

“So, using his powerful magic wand, the evil wizard became invisible. He was then easily able to sneak into the castle. He happened upon the princess as she was taking her daily bath. _Ohohoho,_ the wizard though. _What a gorgeous sight!_ ”

Nami's skin crawled as Usopp described the invisible wizard attacking the princess. The horrible touch of foreign hands on naked skin, the feeling of being completely exposed and vulnerable…

Usopp’s words trailed off. Nami’s face had gone pale and she was shivering again.

“I-I’m sorry. I should-”

“No, it’s alright,” Nami said quickly, rubbing her chilly arms furiously. “Keep going.”

“Uh- Okay.” Twirling the gadget in his hands, Usopp continued. “The princess called out in terror and distress, her cry ripping through the very air. This terrible sound reached the superhuman ears of the brave warrior Armadillo, although he was several miles away. With the speed and ferocity of a wild beast, Armadillo charged towards the castle.

“He burst into the castle’s bath just as the evil wizard was about to escape with the with his hostage, bound and gagged in his arms.

“ _Put down the princess,_ Armadillo roared, readying his bow and arrow.

“ _Never_ , the wizard replying, cackling evilly.

“And although the spell of invisibility still held, Armadillo adjusted his bow and aimed straight for the wizard. An arrow of fire tore through the air and pierced the wizard’s heart, with such precision that not a hair on the princess’ head was harmed. Brave warrior Armadillo swept forwards and caught the princess as the wizard fell to the stone floor, dead.”

Usopp twirled the gadget in his hands a few more times, then set it down and looked over at Nami expectantly.

“Well?” she demanded.

“Well what?”

“How did it end?”

“What do you mean, _how did it end_?” Usopp replied indignantly. “That is the end!”

“But how did the princess thank brave warrior Armadillo?”

“Thank him?” Usopp fumbled slightly. “A brave warrior needs no thanks! A brave warrior saves those in need with no regards to his own- mmph!”

Usopp’s eyes widened as Nami scooted right up next to him and planted a firm kiss on his lips.

“I think _that’s_ how the princess should have thanked him,” she whispered as she pulled away.

Usopp blushed bright scarlet, then reached out and wrapped an arm around Nami’s bare shoulders. Awkwardly, he brushed his lips against hers, titling his head to avoid poking her with his nose.

“I think the brave warrior would have liked that,” he replied, rubbing her arms that weren’t quite so chilly anymore.


	9. 2 Years, 30 Sentences (Straw Hats)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 30 sentences about the Straw Hats' reunion after 2 years apart.
> 
> (I used 30 randomly generated words to write 30 sentences about the Straw Hats' post-timeskip reunion.)

**1 - Case:**

Chopper went through his medical case one more time before mounting the giant bird,  sure he had everything he needed to treat any wounds his nakama might have acquired during these two years.

 

**2 - Hypocrite:**

“Hypocrite,” Sanji snorted when he saw Zoro’s missing eye, after all the teasing the cook had endured about being a one-eyed freak.

 

**3 - Accusation:**

“You must have cheated,” Sanji accused, “to get here first!”

 

**4 - Sponsor:**

The poster read: _Proud Sponsor of Soul King Brook’s Sabaody Concert_ , and Franky began to worry that the newest Straw Hat might not return to them.

 

**5 - Populace:**

The inhabitants of Sabaody were in an uproar- Straw Hat Luffy was back, and no one was safe.

 

**6 - Pat:**

“How could you ever think those impostors were your nakama, idiot,” Nami scolded, but Chopper was so relieved, her punch felt like a pat on the head.

 

**7 - Spring:**

Robin wasn’t the type for vibrant displays of emotion, but she found that there was a bit of a spring in her step at the thought of reuniting with the people that meant the world to her.

 

**8 - Play:**

“Usopp, Chopper, let’s play!” Luffy shouted, and the whole crew let out a collective sigh of relief- he was the same old Luffy.

 

**9 - Modeling:**

“Whoa, Nico Robin, what’ve you been doing these past two years- modeling?”

 

**10 - Tracing:**

A flash of red-hot anger filled Zoro as he traced his sleeping captain’s new scar, and he promised himself he would never let anyone scar Luffy again.

 

**11 - Inverse:**

“Sanji… Did you do something to your hair?” Luffy asked curiously.

 

**12 - Objection:**

Brook felt only slightly guilty when his managers objected to his retirement, but he knew in his heart (although he didn’t have one!) that this was not where he belonged.

 

**13 - Attendance:**

“Party on the deck in ten minutes, everyone has to come!” Luffy ordered his crew.

 

**14 - Smell:**

Chopper closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, relishing the familiar smells of meat and steel, mikan and gunpowder, cigarettes, flowers, cola…

 

**15 - Glove:**

When a human-sized hand appeared out of Franky’s giant metal glove, the boys crowed in excitement, and Robin nodded in approval.

 

**16 - Corpse:**

“You look like the living dead, Zoro, with all those scars… and I should know!! Yohohoho, skull joke!”

 

**17 - Link:**

The Straw Hat pirates had spent more time apart in two years than they had ever spent together, and yet the bond that linked them was so strong that none of them had ever doubted where they truly belonged.

 

**18 - Soft:**

Chopper puffed out his chest proudly as Usopp ran his fingers through the reindeer’s soft, fluffy coat.

 

**19 - Slice:**

“You’re just jealous, dart-brow,” Zoro said with a smirk when Sanji wouldn’t shut up about the ship he’d sliced in half.

 

**20 - Devil:**

“We can control weather and plants… who needs Devil Fruits?” Usopp crowed proudly.

 

**21 - Constitutional:**

There was a moment of panic at Marine Headquarters when Sentomaru reported that the Straw Hats - the _real_ ones - were alive and well and breaking even more laws.

 

**22 - Use:**

“Z-Zoro… can I use your weights?” Usopp asked tentatively, and was immensely relieved when the swordsman nodded instead of slicing his head off.

 

**23 - Borderline:**

Luffy had, in his own way, matured over these two years - now he seemed to have only _borderline_ ADHD.

 

**24 - Flaw:**

“I tried to get the wizards to help me update my Clima-Tact, but there’s some flaws I need you to fix, Usopp…”

 

**25 - Wetting:**

Sanji would sometimes have nightmares about things that had happened on the okama island, things he wouldn’t even admit to himself, with a panic so profound he all but wet the bed.

 

**26 - Encouragement:**

The Straw Hats set off for Fishman Island, full of courage and certainty that they wouldn’t fail in their dreams, shouting and waving goodbyes to their friends and mentors of two years…

 

**27 - Keen:**

There was no single grandiose moment, but rather a feeling of familiarity as the Straw Hats settled back into place, fitting together like puzzle pieces, and keen to continue their adventure as if it had never been interrupted.

 

**28 - Feeding:**

“Thank you for feeding us, Sanji!” Luffy shouted through a mouthful of food, and the entire crew cried out in appreciation- none of them had eaten this well in two years.

 

**29 - Blade:**

Brook smiled at the familiar feel of a blade in his hand as he set aside his guitar to fight for his captain.

 

**30 - Peasant:**

They were misfits, peasants, criminals… they were the Straw Hat pirates, and they were back.


	10. Childhood (Sanji)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Men don't cry, Sanji. Men are strong. They protect weak women. They are not weak."
> 
> Long before he ever met Zeff, Sanji lived on a small island in the North Blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An exploration of Sanji's childhood, written long before we knew anything about the Vinsmoke family.
> 
> Warning for violence and abuse in this chapter.

_**Sanji, age 7, on a small island in the North Blue.** _

“Now add the flour a little at a time.”

Sanji’s mother watched fondly as her son bit his lip in concentration, carefully adding just the right amount of flour to the mixing bowl.

“Now we crack the eggs, right?” Sanji asked, turning to look up at his mother with wide blue eyes.

The small blonde woman smiled and rubbed a bit of flour off of Sanji’s cheek. “Yup. You think you can do that without getting eggshells in the batter?”

Sanji made a face as he hopped off the stool and headed for the fridge. “Of course!”

He carefully plucked three eggs from the fridge and brought them over to the counter. He was about to balance them next to the mixing bowl when the kitchen door crashed open.

Sanji jumped and dropped the eggs. They smashed and splattered across the floor as his father stormed into the kitchen.

“What the hell?” The tall, lithe man's voice was a roar as he grabbed Sanji roughly by the arm. “What do you think you’re doing, woman? Teaching my son how to be a pansy?”

“Honey, please,” his wife said, gently trying to pry Sanji out of his father’s grasp. “Be gentle…”

“Stop coddling him!” Sanji’s father spat. “He's got those freakish girly eyebrows, but my son is a _man_.”

“Daddy.” Tears welled up in the corners of Sanji's eyes. He tried to pull away from the firm grip on his arm.

The sharp sound of a slap echoed through the kitchen as his father struck him across the face.

“Men don’t cry, Sanji,” he said. His eyes were cold. “Men are strong. They protect weak women. They are not weak.”

“Honey…” Sanji’s mother whispered, a hand on her mouth.

“Clean up this mess,” his father ordered her, waving a hand at the sticky egg that splattered the kitchen floor.

She turned away and clenched her eyes shut as Sanji’s father yanked him outside. Sanji saw her kneel down and begin to mop up the floor, saw her swallow hard and bite her lip to keep from crying. Outside, he tried not to shout when his father hit him, so she wouldn't have to hear.

 

* * *

 

Later that night, Sanji sat with his mother in the house’s small living room. His father was at the bar, out for drinks with his hard-handed buddies.

Sanji’s mother sat in a rocking chair next to the fireplace, knitting a sweater. The gentle clicking of her needles soothed him in the quiet room. Sanji lay on his stomach on the floor, brushing a doll’s long pink hair. He never dared to pull his dolls out from their hiding place under his bed when his father was home.

“Would you like to work on the scarf you started the other day?” his mother asked, looking up from her knitting.

Sanji murmured something under his breath as he slipped the pink-haired doll in a ruffled red ball gown.

“What was that, darling?”

Not looking up, Sanji muttered, “Daddy said boys shouldn’t knit.”

His mother sighed deeply and gently set her knitting on a side table.

“How about we go into town?” she suggested, her voice thick with forced cheer. “We could go to that cute little bakery and buy pastries!”

Sanji finally looked up at his mother. His young face broke into a wide grin, slightly twisted by a split lip and swollen eye.

“Okay!” he said, clutching the doll to his chest.

His mother returned his wide smile and ruffled his hair. “Okay.”

 

* * *

 

“Mommy, tell me about the All Blue again!” Sanji requested, bouncing up and down in his seat.

His mother laughed and put down her pastry.

“Well,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “The All Blue is the most beautiful ocean in the world.”

Sanji nodded, excited, and stuffed another fluffy pink strawberry pastry into his mouth.

“And not only is it the most gorgeous ocean, but it’s also the most abundant. Fish from every ocean in the world swim in the All Blue. It’s the dream of every cook to discover this place.”

“It’s my dream, too!” Sanji said. “I’m going to find the All Blue, and open a restaurant there!”

“And what will this restaurant look like?” she asked. This was a well-rehearsed conversation they had almost any time they were alone.

“It will be the most beautiful restaurant in the world, in the most beautiful ocean in the world! It’ll be decorated with flowers, and sparkles, and… and… _princesses_ will come to my restaurant! I’ll get to meet real princesses!”

Sanji’s blue eyes sparkled with excitement, glittering like the ocean of his dreams. His mother reached across the table and took Sanji’s hand in her own.

“I’m sure it will be the most beautiful restaurant ever,” she said.

Sanji glowed with pride before he reached for another pink pastry.

 

* * *

 

It was dark out by the time they had finished eating their small, elaborately decorated pastries. They headed home through dark, nearly deserted streets. Sanji clutched his mother’s hand tightly.

“Do you think Daddy will be home when we get back?” he asked, his voice low.

“I don’t think so, honey,” she answered. She squeezed her son’s hand, smiled down at him softly.

“Good,” Sanji answered. “Because I forgot to put my dolls away, and I don’t think Daddy will be very happy if he sees them.”

Sanji’s mother closed her eyes for a moment and breathed in deeply. Then she stopped and knelt down in front of her son, placing her hands on his shoulders.

“Sanji,” she said seriously, her gaze level with his bright blue eyes.

“Mommy?” His split lip throbbed and he had to squint around the swelling in his cheek. His mother traced the curved of his swollen face and he saw her wince, as if she could feel the strike of his father's bony knuckles.

“Sanji,” his mother repeated. “Your father is wrong. A man can cook, and knit, and play with dolls, and even wear a dress if he wants to. Don’t ever let your father stop you from doing what you love.”

“Okay,” Sanji said softly, accepted the tight hug his mother gave him.

“I love you, Sanji.”

“I love you, too, Mommy…”

“Ohoho, how touching.”

Sanji and his mother jumped at the loud voice that cut through the quiet night. A tall, broad-shouldered man swaggered over to them. His clothes were dirty and torn, and he smelled strongly of alcohol and cigarettes. A large sword hung at his hip.

Sanji’s mother bounded to her feet and began to usher Sanji away from the man, rushing down the street without turning back.

“Hey, woman, where do you think you’re goin’?” the man yelled, picking up his pace to catch up.

“Don’t look back at him, Sanji,” his mother said firmly.

“W-who is that?” he asked, clutching her hand.

“A bad drunk man, honey. We-” Her sentence descended into a scream as the man reached out and grabbed her roughly by the wrist.

“Come here, bitch,” the man snarled.

“Mommy!” Sanji screamed as his mother was yanked away from him and whirled around to face the drunk man.

“Sanji, run!” she shouted. "Now!"

“You’re a pretty woman,” the man hissed, pushing his face up into hers. “Not like those ugly bitches at the bar… I like you.”

“Run!”

His eyes hot with tears, Sanji charged at the man holding his mother.

“Sanji, no-!”

The man clapped a grimy hand over her mouth and snarled, “What do you think you’re doing, brat?”

Sanji jumped and lashed out blindly with his fist. It connected satisfyingly with hard bone. A wave of scarlet coated his clenched fingers.

It wasn’t the man’s nose that had broken, though. It was his mother's.

Sanji felt a wave of nausea rush over him. The man had used Sanji’s mother as a shield. He had struck his own mother.

The man’s grip on her face loosened enough for Sanji’s mother to shout again, “Sanji! Run home now!”

Vomit rising up into his mouth, Sanji turned and raced home, tears blurry with tears.

 

* * *

 

When Sanji burst into his house, his father stood in the middle of the living room. He had the pink-haired doll clutched in his fist and his eyes were ablaze.

“What the hell is this?” he roared. He chucked the doll into the fireplace. “You were playing with _dolls_? What kind of man are you, Sanji?”

The scent of alcohol that rolled off his father reminded Sanji of the man he’d just run away from. The wave of nausea washed over him again and he vomited onto the carpet, tears still streaming down his face.

His father slapped him hard across the face.

“Crying for a doll?” he shouted. His foot connected with Sanji’s ribs.

“Mommy!” Sanji screamed, rolling himself into a little ball as his father’s blows rained down on him. “Mommy!”

“Calling for your mother? Pathetic.”

“Mommy! A man took Mommy! And he had a sword! And…”

His father’s blows stopped suddenly. “What did you say?”

Sanji whimpered in the back of his throat.

“ _What did you say?_ ” his father repeated, yanking Sanji up by his collar.

“A bad drunk man took her!”

His father’s dark eyes widened. Then he dropped his grip on Sanji’s collar, letting his son crash to the floor. He raced out of the house, left Sanji sobbing on the living room floor in a puddle of his own blood and tears.

 

* * *

 

To Sanji, it seemed like his father returned only minutes later, but it might have been much longer. He erupted into the living room, his face redder than Sanji had ever seen it.

“Do you… You… She… How could…”

His fists shook. He couldn’t form complete sentences. Instead, his foot connected with Sanji’s ribs again, sent the boy flying halfway across the room.

“ _He killed her_!” Sanji’s father finally roared, kicking his son again. “That man killed you mother!”

All the air went out of Sanji’s lungs. His heart seemed to stop beating. He didn’t even feel the blows that rained down on him.

His mother.

Was dead.

“You’re a man, Sanji! Men protect women! You should have protected your mother! _You let him kill her_!”

Sanji tried to scramble to his knees, but his father kicked him, hard, and sent him sprawling again.

“Worthless fucking pansy!”

Another kick, and this one sent Sanji hurtling into the fireplace. He screamed as the flames licked his face, seared his left eye.

His father yanked him by the back of the shirt and tossed him against the opposite wall. He was breathing hard, but the brunt of his anger seemed to have subsided.

Sanji curled up tightly, pressed up against the wall. He was sobbing, clutching his face, his eyes clamped shut.

He heard his father storm out of the room and slam the door shut hard enough to make the whole house rattle.

 

* * *

 

Early morning sun had begun to stream into the room by the time Sanji finally managed to move his bloodied and battered body. He stumbled to his feet.

He walked past the fireplace, now burnt down to nothing but orange coals. A twisted mess of blackened, melted hair and cloth was all that remained of his favourite pink-haired doll.

He stumbled out the door and onto the street. The docks weren’t far away.

He refused to think about his mother. Only one thought consumed his mind - _leave_. Leave this island and get as far away as possible. Maybe leave the North Blue, too.

He stumbled onto the docks, sick and dizzy.

“Hey, kid, you lost?” A short, stocky man approached him, eyebrows raised.

“I can cook,” Sanji gasped, looking up at him. “I can clean and do chores and do whatever you like. Just take me with you!”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, kid,” the man said. He folded his thick arms across his chest. “You look like crap, too. What happened to you?”

“Please,” Sanji begged, falling to his knees. “Take me away.”

The man looked down at the kid and grimaced. His face was bruised and bloody, the left side ablaze with an angry red burn that would likely never heal completely.

“Well, let’s at least get those wounds looked at,” the man conceded. He scooped Sanji up in his strong arms.

Sanji breathed out a sigh as the man took him onto the deck of a large passenger ship. “Are you going to the All Blue?” he asked softly, already slipping into unconsciousness.

The man laughed, shaking his head. “No one believes that old myth.”

“I’m gonna find the All Blue… and open my own restaurant… the most beautiful restaurant in the world…” Sanji whispered as his consciousness faded into the darkness.

 

* * *

 

_**Sanji, age 20, in Kamabakka Queendom.** _

“ _Parage Shot_? You mean you know how to perform ze plastic surgery kick?”

“…Yes,” Sanji answered, reluctant, because he didn’t like to agree with Emporio Ivankov. Ever. It usually ended badly for him.

“Like zis?” Iva-chan asked, and the okama queen’s foot connected sharply with Sanji’s face.

Sanji reeled back and clutched at his face. “Holy shit, what was that for?” he shouted.

With a highly amused smile, Ivankov produced a mirror (Sanji preferred not to think about where it might have come from) and handed it to Sanji.

He stiffened when he saw his reflection. He shoved his bangs out of his face, tried to make sure he was seeing this right.

Although it defied any kind of logic, the left and right sides of Sanji’s face seemed to have… switched places. The old burn scar that had haunted him for so long now twisted across the right side of his face instead of the left.

The kick had swapped his eyebrows, too, so the spirals now pointed in towards his nose instead of out towards his ears as they always had.

“Oh dear,” Iva-chan said mildly. “Zat _is_ a nasty scar. I suppose you vill have to wear your bangs on ze other side from now on.”

"I... what..." Sanji spluttered. It was ridiculous and illogical and felt a little bit like a dream, but some part of Sanji sagged with long-ago relief. In a way, he could blame his freshly disfigured face on Ivankov now, instead of on his father. He was one step further away from those North Blue memories, from the childhood that he worked every day to forget.


	11. Protect (Sanji/Usopp, Franky/Usopp)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Franky was a nice enough guy, but whenever the shipwright was alone with Usopp, Sanji's heart would pound a little harder.

“You did great,” Sanji said, looking over at Usopp’s bunk. “At Enies Lobby.”

Usopp pulled his covers up around his shoulders and looked away. “That wasn’t me,” he said, and his voice held just a trace of the deep, calm tone of his alter ego. “That was Sogeking.”

“Then tell Sogeking thanks for me,” Sanji answered. He smiled slightly as he stubbed out his cigarette.

Usopp shifted in his bed. “Yeah. I will.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Nami-swan~ Robin-chwan~ I brought desserts~” Sanji called, swooping across the grassy deck of the new ship. 

Nami barely glanced at him as he set down a platter of delicate chocolates and pastries. Robin didn’t even look up from her book.

“I’ll get drinks, too,” he said, and then a booming crash reverberated from somewhere in the lower decks of the ship. Sanji swore loudly, then turned a sheepish gaze towards the girls who weren’t _entirely_ ignoring him.

“So sorry, my lovely ladies~ I’ll be right back."

He stormed across the ship and down into Franky's workshop, hot and angry. “What the hell are you doing, you shitty shipwright?” he shouted, slamming the door open with a swift kick.

Usopp and Franky froze, staring up at Sanji. They sat on the workshop floor, a tangled mess of awkward limbs and scrap metal, faces black with soot.

Sanji’s eyes widened. He unfroze before his crewmates did, though, and his foot connected sharply with Franky’s face. The cyborg was sent flying across the room and crashed into the workshop wall.

“Whoa, what was that for, cook-bro?” Franky hefted himself to his feet. He adjusted his sunglasses and gave Sanji a dark scowl.

“What were you doing with Usopp?” Sanji asked. His voice was steady with the alarming calm that comes before the worst of furies.

Franky looked taken aback. He was saved from answering by a flustered Usopp, who got to his feet and waved his hands frantically. “We were just experimenting with gunpowder and- well, Franky had some scrap metal and we thought that maybe if we-”

“Look, sorry if we disturbed you, but that was totally uncalled for,” Franky said. He rubbed one giant hand across his back where he’d crashed into the wall.

“Don’t kill us!” Usopp added, shielding his face.

Sanji stared at the two pirates for a moment, then spun around and growled, “Just don’t make any more noises like that. You’re upsetting the ladies." He stalked away before they noticed the slight red flush that had crept into his cheeks.

 

* * *

 

Sanji finished drying off the last few plates before setting down his dishcloth. He pulled off his apron and threw it over the back of a chair, then sat down with a heavy sigh. His eyes drifted shut as he took a long drag of his cigarette.

“Shit,” he breathed, exhaled a cloud of bluish smoke.

He’d felt strangely on edge since he’d burst in on Usopp and Franky earlier that day. In fact, he hadn’t felt completely at ease since they’d left Water 7. Maybe even earlier than that.

He figured it was just the newness of it all - a new ship, a new crewmate. Franky was a nice enough guy, but whenever the shipwright was alone with Usopp, Sanji’s heart would pound a little harder. After what Franky had done to Usopp in Water 7... How could Usopp ever be comfortable with the older pirate? And yet Usopp had forgiven Franky faster than any of them.

And maybe that was what bothered Sanji the most, although he couldn’t exactly put his finger on why. He didn’t want to.

He stubbed out the butt of his cigarette and pulled out another one. He put it to his lips, but before he could light it, he was striding across the kitchen, his legs making up their own mind.

 

* * *

 

 

Sanji strode purposefully into Usopp’s workshop, startling the sniper.

“I wasn’t making any noise!” was the first thing he said, ducking low.

“I didn’t say you did,” Sanji answered. He closed the workshop door and leaned against it.

“So I’m not in trouble?”

Sanji didn’t answer. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a pack of matches. “Sorry about freaking out at you guys earlier,” he said finally, lighting his cigarette.

Usopp stared at him wide-eyed, mouth hanging open. “Did you just _apologize_?” he asked. “You never apologize to anyone that doesn’t have boobs!”

Sanji fumbled slightly with his cigarette, swore softly. “Whatever,” he grumbled. “Never mind.”

“Shouldn’t you say sorry to Franky, then? After all, you kicked _him_ , not me.” Usopp stood and came out from behind his worktable. When Sanji didn’t answer, Usopp tentatively stepped closer to him. “You don’t like Franky much, do you?”

“He’s nothing but a giant brute. Almost makes the marimo seem normal.”

“Nah, Franky’s great!” Usopp said. He was grinning, his eyes wide and genuine.

“You seem to think so."

Usopp paused, folded his arms across his chest. “What's that mean?” 

“Just…" Sanji tapped his foot against the workshop's wood floor. "After what he did in Water 7...”

Usopp face hardened. “He’s more than made up for what he did. It’s… I’d rather not think about that, okay?” Usopp seemed to shrink away from Sanji as he spoke, folding in on himself. “He’s our nakama now, though. You forgave Robin for what she did, right?”

Sanji bristled. “Robin’s a delicate lady, not a muscled monster who beat you to a bloody pulp and left us feeling like shit for not stopping him.”

Usopp stared up at Sanji, mouth slightly open. He seemed stuck between two uncertainties, frozen.

And then Sanji's hands were on Usopp's shoulders, their faces inches apart. Usopp's breath was warm on Sanji's face, soft and not unpleasant.

“Sanji?” Usopp asked quietly.

Sanji searched Usopp’s dark eyes, wide and confused. He breathed deeply, then pulled away from Usopp slowly.

“Just… tell me if he ever does anything. If Franky ever does anything bad,” he said, carefully, before he left the room, shutting the workshop door firmly behind him. Alone in the hallway, hand still gripping the door handle, he added softly, "I'll protect you."


	12. In the City of Gold (Sanji & Brook)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five years after Luffy becomes the Pirate King, Sanji and Brook find themselves alone on Skypiea.

“I can’t believe you,” Sanji growled. He sat slumped against a craggy spire of stone, a half-empty bottle of sake clutched loosely in one hand, clothes rumpled and hair disheveled.

“I can’t believe it either! Yohohoho! I can’t believe my eyes, this place is so lovely- and I don’t even have eyes!”

“Shut up about how beautiful this place is!” Sanji shouted. He stumbled to his feet, drunkenly unsteady. “Who gives a shit about how beautiful this place is?”

Brook didn’t answer. His skeletal face seemed to contort into something like a frown.

Sanji looked away, looked down at his hands, knobby and gaunt in the light of the moon. He was only twenty-six, but he felt infinitely older, dry and shriveled up.

He lashed out, kicked blindly at crumbling stone walls. The lost city of Shandora looked the same as it had when the Straw Hats had first left Skypiea, so many years before. He hated that it hadn’t changed, while everything else had.

“I can’t believe you!” he shouted again, turning his unfocused gaze to Brook’s blank eye sockets. “Acting like this is a vacation! Like we’re having fun! Like… like…” Violently, he swung the sake bottle to his mouth and drank deeply, then let the bottle slip from his fingers and land at his feet. The last of the alcohol splashed across his shoes as it thumped to the moonlit grass.

“You shouldn’t waste that,” Brook said, quietly.

Sanji pretended not to hear. He’d turned away from Brook, was lighting a cigarette with unsteady hands. Silence stretched like spider silk between them, thin and vibrating.

“The marines still haven’t said who turned him in,” Sanji said finally. His eyes followed the blue smoke that curled from his lips into the night sky. 

“Maybe he turned himself in,” Brook suggested, coming up behind Sanji.

“Why would he do that?”

A narrow skeletal hand settled on Sanji's shoulder. “It’s what the first Pirate King did…”

“That was Gold Roger! This is _Luffy_!” Sanji jerked away from Brook's touch. “Luffy doesn’t give up. He doesn’t do that! He… he…”

Sanji's face was wet with tears. He didn’t make any move to wipe them away.

“They’re going to kill him,” Sanji said. His voice hitched. He looked out at the deserted city, gold glittering in the moonlight. “They’re going to kill him and we just ran away to hide here.”

Suddenly, Brook’s arms were wrapped around Sanji chest, his grip stronger and more solid than Sanji had thought the skeleton was capable of.

“Don’t say that,” Brook ordered, and his voice held the commanding tone that hadn’t been used since he’d been in charge of the Rumbar Pirates, so long ago. “We aren’t running. We’re collecting an army. We will rescue Luffy.”

His words were even and serious, not quite angry but authoritarian. Sanji wanted to pull away, wanted to shout and fight, but he was dizzy and the tears still streamed down his face, hot and terrible.

So he relaxed into Brook’s embrace, and tried to believe his words were true.


	13. Embrace (Straw Hats)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A strong embrace, a gentle one, an awkward touch... Of all their hugs, Luffy's can pull the crew together and remind them to never let go.

Brook’s touch is strange, and bony, and he always seems afraid to let go.

Franky’s arms are hard and cold, and always grip a little too tightly.

Robin’s touch is unnerving, too many hands brushing gently across skin.

Chopper’s arms are small, or sometimes huge, nearly as strong as Franky’s, but his embrace is always gentle, even awkward.

Sanji’s touch is subtle, tentative at first, but then becomes needy, almost desperate.

Usopp’s touch is always nervous, uncertain, but his sniper’s hands stay steady.

Nami usually hits before she hugs, but she has the tight, warm grip of a child hugging her mother.

Zoro insists he doesn’t like hugs, but when the swordsman lies half-asleep on the deck, he never pushes away a cuddle.

And Luffy’s arms stretch, encircling the whole crew and pulling them together, reminding them that they’ll never let each other go again.


	14. Blind (Brook & Yorki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Brook dreamed of his old crew, of his fellow musicians and even of Captain Yorki, he knew it wasn't real. Because in his dreams, Brook could see.

When Brook dreamed of his old crew, of his fellow musicians and even of Captain Yorki, he knew it wasn’t real. Because in his dreams, Brook could see.

* * *

Brook had always loved music. Even in his world of darkness, he could appreciate it on equal footing with everybody else. So when Calico Yorki found him, a blind and broken veteran of the army with a cane and a violin and only a spark of life left in him, Brook’s world opened up again.

He was playing his violin on the side of the street, eyes closed behind dark glasses. He could sense someone near him, though, someone who lingered as Brook played one song, then another, and the air got cooler and the town got quieter.

Finally, he put down his violin. The person moved, stepped towards him.

“I’m Calico Yorki,” the person said. “Do you want to join my pirate crew?”

Brook nearly dropped his violin. “Yes,” he answered, his mouth racing ahead before his brain could catch up.

“Great!” Yorki said. He reached up, clapped Brook’s shoulder. “Come on. I need to find a ship.”

“Wait!” Brook shouted. Yorki footsteps clacked on the cobbled street, already beginning to walk away up the road. “I can’t join your crew.”

Yorki's footsteps paused. “But you just said yes.”

“I can’t. I was in the army-”

“So you can fight!” Yorki's voice was cheery with delight.

“No. I…” Brook fingered the edge of his glasses. “I can’t see anymore.”

“But you can play music.”

“Well, yes, but-”

“If you want to join my crew, all I ask is that you love music.”

And so Brook became a Rumbar pirate.

* * *

The ship Yorki found was tiny, more a rowboat than a ship. Brook and Yorki had to crowd together in the cramped sleeping cabin, bodies pressed together.

On the very first night, Yorki reached out and poked the scar on Brook’s forehead. Brook yelped and nearly jumped out of his skin, but only managed to whack his head on the cabin’s low ceiling.

“How’d you get that scar?” Yorki asked.

“When I was in the army,” Brook said, again answering without thinking. “I was hit in the head. Cracked my skull and damaged my brain. It took away my eyesight.”

Yorki laughed, and Brook didn’t know what to make of that.

“It damaged your brain? No wonder you’re crazy enough to grow that massive thing on your head!”

“It’s an afro!” Brook protested, as Yorki continued to laugh.

* * *

When Brook woke up the first time, alone in the Florian Triangle, he’d been dreaming about that first night with Yorki. It was a good dream, and he didn’t really want to wake up from it.

When he did wake up, he screamed.

He could see.

The world was grey and foggy, but he could see it, and he nearly died all over again from the shock. And then he saw the skeletons, the bones and the skulls of his crewmates, and his own hands, white and skeletal.

He wished - he _prayed_ \- that he was still blind.

He tried to skew his eyelids shut, block out the horrible world around him.

But he was a skeleton, and he didn’t have eyelids.

Yohohoho. Skull joke.


	15. Red (Usopp/Luffy)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usopp met Luffy, and red became the colour of strength and of heroes.

Usopp had never liked the colour red. Red was the colour of blood, and pain, and his mother’s cheeks against her pale skin when she was feverish and dying.

And then Usopp met a pirate captain with black hair and white teeth and a red shirt that he seemed to change even less often than Usopp changed his overalls. Red suddenly became the colour of strength, and heroes, and someone who was far more amazing than Usopp could ever hope to be.

Usopp decided then that he liked the colour red.

* * *

He sat on the deck of the Thousand Sunny, running his fingers through soft grass. He stared up at the stars, at the constellations winking down at him, and pulled Sogeking’s cape tighter around his shoulders. It wasn’t his watch, but he hadn’t been able to sleep very well since leaving Water 7. Sunny still just didn’t feel like home.

Usopp screamed when a dark shape suddenly flung itself down from the crow’s nest and directly into his lap.

“L-Luffy,” he stuttered, trying to slow his frantically beating heart. He stared down at his captain’s wildly grinning face.

“Is it your watch next?” Luffy asked. He tried to wiggle under the cape next to Usopp.

“No. I think it’s Sanji’s,” Usopp answered, shifting slightly to make room for Luffy.

Luffy pulled the red cape up to his chin and settled down in Usopp’s lap, back pressed firmly against the sniper’s stomach.

“I like red,” Luffy said, suddenly, fingering the edge of the cape. “It’s the colour of heroes!”

Usopp froze.

“Like Red Hair Shanks… and Sogeking.” And then Luffy turned his head, rubbery neck craning around until his lips were pressed firmly but messily against Usopp’s.

Usopp didn’t move, wanted to shout that, _No, no, no, he wasn’t a hero_ , and tried to remind himself that Luffy didn’t know who Sogeking really was. But maybe he was the damsel in distress, and Luffy was still the hero, so maybe it was okay to kiss him back.

He melted into Luffy’s kiss, enjoying every messy, slobbery moment of it. He smiled when Luffy pulled away.

“Usopp’s a hero, too,” Luffy said, white teeth shinning as he grinned in the starlight. “Your cheeks are red!”


	16. Christmas Cookies (Franky/Usopp)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fluffy Christmas drabble for Franky and Usopp.

“Get your rubbery ass over here _right now_ ,” Sanji roared, tearing out of the galley. “I swear I’ll kick you ‘till you’re nothing but a smear on the deck of this ship, Luffy!”

Usopp slipped quietly out of the galley’s other door, a tin of cookies stashed in his overalls. He felt slightly guilty that Luffy was being accused of his crime - though, really, it was just payback for all the times that Luffy had tried to pin the meat-pilfering blame on Usopp (not that Sanji had ever believed him).

A moment later, Usopp slipped into Franky’s workshop.

“Hey, bro,” Franky greeted absently. He didn't look up from whatever he was tinkering with.

Usopp set the tin of cookies on Franky’s work desk and leaned forward. “Is that your old necklace?” he asked. It was a twisted mass of gold metal, and Franky was poking at fruitlessly with his smaller set of robo-hands.

“Yeah,” Franky answered, lifting his shaved head. The smaller hands retracted back into the big metal mitts. “It got destroyed while I was on that crazy snowy island. Not super at all.”

The cyborg looked down at the hunk of metal for a moment, then asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be helping Sanji with the dishes?”

“He gave me the day off. Said something about murdering Luffy.” Usopp pushed the tin of cookies towards Franky, then opened the lid proudly.

“Oh, super!” Franky grabbed a few of the richly decorated Christmas cookies in his huge hands. “I can’t remember the last time I had homemade cookies like this. It’s so good to be back with the crew.”

“It is,” Usopp agreed. He itched to lean forwards. The voice, deep and calm and especially heroic, that hadn’t bothered him for almost two years, suddenly whispered in the back of his mind.

He only hesitated for a moment before leaning towards Franky and catching the cyborg’s lips with his own. He screwed his eyes shut and tried to force his legs not to shake. Behind the tang of metal, Franky’s mouth tasted sweet, like cola and Christmas cookies and something else Usopp couldn’t quite place.

It tasted perfect.

He didn’t pull away, not even when Franky reached out and gripped Usopp’s shoulders with his too-big hands.

When they finally parted, Usopp’s face was flushed red and his legs still weren’t quite steady. But he looked up at Franky’s grinning face and smiled.

“Merry Christmas,” he said, and didn’t mind at all when Franky pulled him closer.


	17. Blood (Zoro & Chopper)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoro finally goes through with one of his threats to chop off an offending limb. Chopper has to take care of it.

Blood. There’s so much blood. Too much blood. This is nothing new for Zoro, but the blood is pouring from the stump of his right arm. The stump of his arm that is _very much not attached to his body._

The blade in his left hand shudders slightly, dripping crimson, and his grip falters. His good eye is screwed shut and he’s clenching his jaw in pain.

“You okay, Doctor?” he huffs through gritted teeth, and if his face wasn’t so twisted with pain it would almost look like he’s smiling.

Chopper makes a sound in the back of his throat and realizes he’s started to cry.

“Your arm…” he whispers, trying to swallow the tears that are already falling into the fur on his face.

“I know,” Zoro grunts in answer. “It got in the way. I took care of it.”

Chopper fumbles with his medical bag, trying to see past the tears burning his eyes- blood, blood, oh god there’s more of it now, too much blood, even for Zoro. The battle is still raging on around them but he trusts his crew the keep the enemies at bay, to keep them safe while Zoro bleeds out and Chopper tries to mop up the blood.

Chopper’s stomach heaves as he presses gauze against the cleanly sliced flesh. He’s a doctor. He’s seen worse.

But this is _Zoro_ , and no matter what happens nothing’s ever supposed to be permanent. The eye should have told him otherwise, but Chopper wasn’t there when it happened and he told himself that he would never, ever have let it happen.

And yet he couldn’t stop Zoro from taking his own arm.

But he can stop the bleeding.

“Chopper?” Zoro grunts, his face pale and his left hand shaking.

“It’s okay,” Chopper says, and the steadiness of his own voice surprises him. “I’ll fix this.”

“I know,” Zoro answers.


	18. Change (Chopper & Usopp & Luffy)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chopper had promised himself he wouldn't do this, wouldn't cry or act so young anymore. Luffy had given his crew two years to get stronger. They weren't children anymore.

Tears streamed down Chopper’s face, left wet trails in his fur. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t do this, wouldn’t cry or act so young anymore. Luffy had given his crew two years to get stronger. They weren’t children anymore.

Except none of that mattered, because Luffy wasn’t Luffy anymore, either. Not the Luffy that Chopper had known. Not the Luffy that Chopper would get stronger for. Would become a monster for.

If this new Luffy wasn’t going to save Robin, then Chopper would. Even if he cried and sniffled as he did it.

But then Chopper’s world was flipped upside down again, because suddenly there was Usopp, and Nami - another Nami?

“Usopp! Nami! Robin, she- and Luffy won’t- and I-”

Chopper bit back his tears. They were hugging him, caressing him, telling him not to worry, that that wasn’t Luffy at all, just an impostor, a fake.

So Chopper swallowed his tears and smiled his manliest smile.

They weren’t children anymore.

* * *

Usopp had been terrified. Terrified to come back to a beaten and broken Luffy, a Luffy who’d lost his smile and his spark and everything that made him the man they loved.

Luffy was the last to arrive, and when he did the whole crew was screaming and laughing and waving, and yet somehow everything felt calmer than it had for two years.

One look at the captain’s beaming face was enough to convince Usopp he’d been stupid to ever worry. Even the terrifying scar on Luffy's chest was nothing compared to the glint in Luffy’s big eyes that Usopp had missed like a physical pain. Luffy threw out his arms and grabbed the whole crew, squished them together and held them tight.

They’d changed. They’d gotten bigger and stronger and older.

But now they were together, and the changes didn’t matter half as much as what had stayed the same.

* * *

Luffy’s rubbery arm was plastered against Chopper’s back, holding him tightly between Franky’s huge arm and Usopp’s chest. Chopper nuzzled his face deeper into the tight embrace and smiled hugely.

Maybe they weren’t children anymore.

But that didn’t mean they had to change.

Not too much.


	19. Coming Back Together (Franky/Usopp)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After two years apart, Usopp doesn't think he can pick up where he left off with Franky. Because one or two kisses don't make a relationship. Probably.

The first thing Usopp did after giving Heracles a manly (tearful) goodbye hug was rush towards the spot where they’d left the Sunny two years before.

When the smiling lion figurehead came into view, between impossibly tall striped trees, his heart felt like it was going to burst. After Merry, he never thought he’d be able to love a ship so much. But in this moment, Sunny came pretty close.

And then he saw a broad back covered in a loud Hawaiian shirt, shoulders too big and too robotic, hair shaved too short, but blue, bright blue and oh so familiar-

“Franky!” Usopp shouted, his voice still a little hoarse from crying with Heracles. He bounded up to the ship, grabbed the railing and hauled himself up onto the deck as Franky turned to face him.

Franky’s grin was huge, bright white teeth and pointy sunglasses that glinted in the light filtering through the trees.

“Longnose-bro!” Franky shouted in reply. “Suuuper!”

Huge, cold, strong arms wrapped themselves around Usopp’s waist, pulling him tight against Franky’s hard chest, lifting him up and off his feet, squeezing him until he could hardly breathe.

Usopp was smiling so hard it almost hurt as he buried his face in Franky’s neck. Tears dribbled down Franky’s chin and dropped onto Usopp’s forehead.

“You got so big,” Franky said when he finally, finally loosened his grip on Usopp. He set him back on his feet and held him by the shoulders, inspecting him over the top of his glasses.

“So did you,” Usopp said. He stared up, up at Franky’s monstrous, robotic form. “You’re _awesome_.”

Franky struck a pose and proceeded to loudly describe his many fantastic upgrades, and Usopp listened in fascinated rapture.

* * *

With every crewmate that trickled in, Usopp’s heart felt like it was growing, growing from something he hadn’t even realized was small and shriveled and hurting, into something more whole and happy than it had ever been before.

When Franky sent Usopp to get fuel and he ran into Nami, he was more eager than he ever thought he’d be to shop with her. (Her haggling skills had gotten even more… forceful.)

And when Luffy showed up, when Luffy finally came and the crew was complete and perfect again, Usopp was pretty sure that his heart really had exploded, jumped right out of his chest and splattered everywhere.

It was a beautiful feeling, not scary at all.

That night, after endless hours of booze and singing and laughter and stories, the entire crew lay sprawled out on the deck in a content, sleepy silence. Through half-lidded eyes, Usopp watched the lights of fluorescent fish slowly slip past the bubble above. The sounds of snoring and murmuring and shifting around him were the most perfect sounds he’d ever heard, sounds that made him shiver and smile and wish for this moment to never, ever end. 

* * *

Fishman Island flew by in a rush of mermaids and nosebleeds and villains and fights and parties. Usopp was pretty sure he’d been brave, pretty sure he’d done right and impressed his crew. He knew the others had impressed him. He felt only the slightest tinge of jealousy that he wasn’t the only one who’d improved. That even though he was better and stronger, so was everyone else. That the gap hadn’t really been narrowed at all.

Only the slightest tinge of jealousy.

Rediscovering his workshop was an almost surreal experience. Usopp ran his hands over all his old tools, his projects and plans left half-finished and lying around haphazardly. He picked one up and tried to resume working on it, tinkering and skimming plans.

After an hour of work he realized he’d completely forgotten what the purpose of this little invention was supposed to be.

He leaned against the wall of his shop for a while, legs folded under him, sketchbook open on his lap. There were unfinished drawings in here, too. Figures without heads or arms, ships without masts or sails or flags, landscapes with no skies, trees with no branches.

Everything had been left unfinished when they were whisked away two years ago. It was easy to forget, when he was on an island that threatened to eat him and kill him in a thousand horrible ways, when his every waking moment (and nearly every sleeping one, too) was occupied only with the thought of staying alive. When his ship and his crew and his projects and his _life_ were so far away.

Only now did he wonder if it was ever going to be possible for things to go back to the way they’d been before.

He could hear Franky working in his own workshop through the wall, and it made so many memories spring to mind. Some bad - with Franky, there were always some bad memories, no matter how hard he tried to forget, because Water 7 in general was something he didn’t like to think about - but good memories, too. Really good memories. Memories of working together, of building crazy projects and taking care of the ship and having each other’s back in a fight. Of just being close, really close, and kissing, once, twice, maybe more. Because sometimes Usopp wasn’t sure how much of his relationship with Franky was real and how much of it had only happened in his head, on nights when Bowin Island was at its calmest and he could allow himself to let his guard down, just a bit.

Suddenly Usopp wanted nothing more than to get up, to leave his workshop that seemed too foreign, to slip into Franky’s room and into his arms that were foreign, too, new and robotic and cool, but still one hundred percent Franky.

But he couldn’t get his legs to move, couldn’t unstick himself from the floor, and his face felt hot and his stomach was tight. He might have been bigger and stronger and braver now, but not brave enough. He couldn’t go to Franky, couldn’t assume that Franky wanted what he wanted. Because it was just a kiss, or two, years ago, and just because Usopp had spent two years thinking about it and fantasizing about it and obsessing over it didn’t mean that Franky had, too.

* * *

Usopp stared up at the ceiling of the boys’ room, his covers bunched around his ankles. He felt warm, too warm, and antsy. The familiar sounds of snoring and sleepy murmuring that filled the room weren’t enough to lull him to sleep. Franky lay sprawled out on the bunk below him, too-big arms and skinny legs hanging over the sides.

Usopp wanted to crawl down there to join him, to slip out of his bunk and into Franky’s and feel the older pirate’s arms around him, and smell him and feel him and be close. The idea - and the fact that he couldn’t, wouldn’t, do that - made Usopp’s throat tight.

So instead, he curled in on himself, rolled over onto his stomach and looked down, down at Franky’s chest slowly rising and falling with deep, sleeping breaths.

* * *

Usopp stared at the door of Franky’s workshop. His palms were sweatier than they should have been - he was only going to ask if Franky, maybe, wanted to help him with a project, because since when did not kissing somebody mean not being with them at all?

But his hands were wet and his stomach was tense when he knocked on the Adam wood door. (And since when did he knock? He was sure, two years ago, when everything was easy and normal, he’d always just barged right in.)

For a long moment, Franky didn’t open the door. Usopp could hear movement inside - maybe Franky wanted him to go away? Didn’t want to be disturbed? He could respect that.

He was already walking away - too quickly, too relieved - when the door to Franky’s workshop was thrown open.

“Longnose-bro!” Franky said. His grin was so blinding and familiar that it made Usopp relax and tense up at the same time. “You don’t have to knock! Come on in!”

Usopp grinned in return, and followed him, wiping his sweaty palms on his pants.

They worked closely, together, for hours, talking and laughing and shoving and touching. And Usopp was pretty sure he was okay with this, that even though Franky hadn’t made a single move to be closer to him, to do anything that wasn’t strictly platonic and friendly and just _Franky_ , that that was okay. Just being near the older pirate - because that’s what Franky was, after all, so much older, and he was a pirate, loud and brash, who could maybe kiss any crewmate when he was drunk and happy and partying, and it didn’t mean much of anything, to him, especially two years later - just being close to Franky was enough.

Usopp figured he’d exaggerated, probably, when he’d thought of (obsessed over) Franky during those two years - he probably wasn’t in love, not really. He was just young.

And brash.

And stupid.

Not in love.

Probably.

* * *

Once he’d decided he didn’t love Franky, not any more than the rest of his nakama, his hands didn’t sweat so much when he went to open the door of Franky’s workshop - he didn’t knock, didn’t need to - but his stomach still felt tight.

He stopped, in the doorway, when he saw Franky pacing up and down the length of his workshop, yanking at his ridiculous (cool) beetle hair. Franky froze, too, when he noticed Usopp. And though his eyes were hidden by pointy shades that he really didn’t have to wear inside, Usopp could still see the expression on his face. Strange - embarrassed, nervous, even, if Usopp hadn’t known any better.

“Longnose-bro… Usopp!” Franky said, and moved towards the table where they’d left their half-finished project the day before.

They worked in silence, for a while, and it was nothing like the day before, and Usopp wasn’t okay with this at all. He wondered if it was something he’d done, if maybe he’d come onto Franky yesterday without realizing it, without really meaning it, probably-

They both reached for the same tool, at the same moment, distracted by their own thoughts. Usopp tried to jerk his hand away, as if he’d been burned by Franky’s red metal glove. But the cyborg held on, kept his huge fingers gripped around Usopp’s calloused ones.

Usopp made an uncomfortable noise in the back of his throat, that was suddenly too tight, and he was too warm, and he was stupid, too, because he realized now that he was looking too far into Franky’s actions-

“Hey. Longnose-bro. I haven’t been very super this week.” Usopp looked up into Franky’s eyes, sunglasses set aside now. “I’ve been leading you on, and you’re too good a kid for me to do that to.”

Franky sounded too old, and wise, and tired, and not super at all, and Usopp wanted to tell him to stop, because Franky wasn’t supposed to sound like this.

“I did some pretty un-super things two years ago, and I don’t want you to think you have to keep it up.”

Usopp was pretty sure he knew what Franky was trying to say - it made his stomach tighter, because Franky could be rejecting him now. But it also made him warmer and more excited and hopeful, maybe, because it meant Franky had thought about it, too, that it wasn’t nothing to him, at the very least-

“Are you talking about this?” Usopp asked, and Heracles must really have done a good job with him, because he didn’t hesitate at all when he leaned up, up, and kissed Franky, hard, and awkward, but not shy or chaste at all. He tasted Franky’s teeth, his tongue, the metallic tang of a not-quite-human mouth, the ever-present sweetness of cola… Flavours and sensations that were all Franky, and everything he’d imagined over the past years.

Franky pulled away, pushed him away. Usopp’s stomach dropped to his toes.

“Yeah. Like that,” Franky said, and he still sounded too old and tired. “You don’t have to do that.”

Usopp’s throat was so tight, so constricted, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to form the words as he asked, “You don’t want to?”

“I don’t want _you_ to. I’m too old and not super enough for you. What right did I have to do _anything_ with you after what my family did to you in Water 7? After what _I_ did to you?”

Usopp leaned forwards, wrapped his arms around Franky’s waist and buried his face against Franky’s chest.

“I love you,” he said, and even though he’d decided it wasn’t true, he was sure then that it was.

Franky froze, and Usopp thought he’d done the wrong thing again - but then Franky was crying loudly and familiarly and hugging Usopp so tightly - too tightly - and it was nothing short of _perfect_. He realized that he hadn’t exaggerated at all over these past two years - he’d underestimated. Everything about Franky was confusing and sometimes wrong - hard cold arms that hurt when they hugged, crying when there should have been smiling, bad memories mixed in with the good- but Usopp was a pirate, and wrong was the least of his worries.

“Super,” Franky cried into Usopp’s messy hair. He was still too quiet, but he sounded like Franky again. “I love you, too.”

Everything wasn’t the same as it had been before Kuma whisked them away - it would never really be the same, Usopp was pretty sure of that now - but different wasn’t bad. Not when different meant confident enough to kiss, and love, and throw away the wrongness of something that seemed so right.


	20. Stronger (Luffy & Zoro)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was thinking about the time when a lot of people thought Zoro had lost his arm over the timeskip, and I saw someone somewhere saying that maybe he’d learned to use Armament Haki to sort of replace the lost arm in order to keep his three-sword-style, so… this happened.

Luffy drank in the sight of his crew, his nakama, _finally._ He’d missed them like a physical pain, an ache that had plagued him for two years and was only fading now.

He threw himself at his first mate, standing closest. He wrapped his arms, impossibly tightly, around Zoro, felt the sturdy warmth of his broad chest.

“Good to see you too, Sencho,” Zoro said, and wrapped a single strong arm around Luffy’s shoulders.

A single arm.

Luffy pulled away from Zoro, felt like something was suddenly blocking his throat. He pulled frantically at the sleeves of Zoro’s robe, exposing his shoulders. Luffy’s fingers dug into Zoro’s left shoulder, into the flesh just above the naked stump that was once a powerful arm.

“What…”

Zoro didn’t answer, didn’t flinch. Luffy pulled away from his first mate sharply. Pulled back his arm and punched Zoro as hard as he could.

Zoro went flying, crashed into Sunny’s side. Franky growled in anger, standing on the deck with the rest of the crew who silently watched the exchange between captain and mate.

“I told you to get stronger!” Luffy roared, eyes alarmingly dark beneath the brim of his hat. “You’re supposed to become the world’s greatest swordsman! Not weak!”

“I have become stronger,” Zoro answered calmly, wiping the blood from his nose as he rose to his feet. “Armament haki.” Zoro’s voice remained low, even, and his eyes remained on Luffy’s tense form. A shape that was almost a ghostly black arm replaced the emptiness on Zoro’s left side. Calmly, he unsheathed his three swords, one gripped by the black hand.

And then, without warning, he threw himself at his captain. Luffy reacted without hesitation, meeting Zoro’s swords with his own haki-enhanced limbs. He pinned Zoro easily, hands digging into his shoulders, hat pulled down low over his eyes.

Luffy's tears dripped down onto Zoro’s face, and Zoro's tense body relaxed under his captain’s hands.

“Just like Shanks,” Luffy said. “You’re so stupid.”

Zoro laughed, freed his arm to reach up and push Luffy’s hat away from his eyes. “Look who’s talking.”

Luffy collapsed onto Zoro’s chest and wound his rubbery arms around his crewmate, buried his face against Zoro. "I'm glad you're alive," he said.


	21. Two In One (Usopp/Nami/Sanji)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on the events of chapter 674.

Your name is Usopp, you are a Straw Hat pirate, and at the moment, you are _freaking out._

“Master,” whispers Sanji - no, not Sanji, Nami, even if he (she, it) has Sanji’s voice.

Master… Who is this guy, _what_ is this guy, his body twisting and curling like smoke, like gas - which you guess can be explained by a devil fruit (what can’t be? you sometimes wonder), but what about those horns? For a second you think of Merry (the person, not the ship, but is there really ever a time when the Merry Go isn’t at the back of your mind?), and then you’re brought back to reality - horrible, terrifying reality - because Sanji ( _Nami_ ) is shouting at Master, fury in her (his) eye. Master’s holding up a bag of candy and grinning widely.

“Come, children, we must get you away from these horrible people,” he says, voice all calm, too calm. When you realize he’s calling you and Nami (Nami, not Sanji) _horrible people_ , anger flares in your stomach. Sure, you’re pirates, you’re criminals, but you’re nowhere near as horrible as _him_.

The kids are staggering forwards, eyes rolling, frothing at the mouth, even worse than the zombies back on Thriller Bark because these are _children_.

“Wait! Don’t go! Do you wanna go back to the lab?” you shout. You can hear Nami trying to coax the kids, too. (Nami’s words, Sanji’s voice, and every time you hear it there’s a weird feeling in your stomach.)

You’re distracted long enough for the kid’s fist to connect with your face and you go down _hard_. Kids shouldn’t be - can’t be - this strong.

“Usopp!” Sanji’s voice, Nami’s words. And then Sanji’s hands helping you up with Nami’s gentle touch and you _shudder_.

And then she’s (she she she, not he) throwing herself at the kids again.

“Don’t touch me, cockroach!” one of the kids yells, shaking Nami off easily. You see red. Nami’s not a cockroach! (Sanji doesn’t look like a cockroach!)

You ready your Black Kabuto, but Nami’s grabbing at you, pleading, “No, no, don’t hurt them!” while Sanji’s strong hands (were they always so delicately feminine?) hold your wrists tight.

You try to protest - these kids are going to _kill you both_ (trap Sanji in a body that isn’t his) - and then one of the kids’ too-big fists connects with the side of Nami’s (Sanji’s) face.

She goes down easily (it’s like a shock to your system, seeing Sanji so weak).

“Bastard!” This time you’re going to _kill_ that kid, protect Nami (and Sanji’s body).

“These kids are victims! It’s not their fault!” (Sanji’s body is still tough, she looks mostly unhurt, good.)

“They’re _hallucinating_! They called you,” (called Sanji) “a cockroach!”

“If you’re going to be angry at someone, be angry at _him_!”

You look over at Master - so calm, so sinister, _the calm ones are always the deadliest_.

“He’s the one drugging the children!” It might be Sanji’s voice, but these are _Nami’s words_ and Nami always knows what to say - to get what she wants, to say what needs to be said, to get you right in the heart.

“Take this, gas bastard! I have a special move that works against gas!” It’s an old attack, not from Bowin Island but from before, and it’s familiar and easy and it _works_ -

It doesn’t work.

Your firebird star fizzles out and _how-_

“Fire can’t burn if you remove you remove the oxygen!”

And then you _can’t breathe_. (And this is nothing like a panic attack, it’s a thousand times worse, you try to breathe in but there’s _nothing to breathe_.) Your fingers clutch at your throat and you crumple to your knees and you hear Sanji scream (not Sanji, Nami, except that doesn’t make sense and why is your brain so fuzzy?).

When the giant pipe is about to crush you both (all three of you) and your world is going black around the edges, you realize with dark certainty that _you’ve failed the two people who mean the world to you_. (And everyone else that matters to you, because without Sanji and Nami, the crew isn’t the crew - sorry, Luffy.)

* * *

Nami comes over to you, swinging her hips (you think of Sanji in her body, of when those hips were - sort of - his). She is very much herself again.

“Well, that was crazy,” she says, throwing herself down next to you on the aquarium bench.

“Yeah,” you say, because it was - Punk Hazard, Caesar Clown, Law… You’ve just finished your first adventure in the New World (except nothing is ever really _finished_ , not when you’re a pirate, not when you’re with Luffy) and you’re on your way to another island with another adventure and you wonder how many more adventures you can take before you die.

“You have no idea how good it feels to be back in my own body,” Nami informs you, hugging her own shoulders like she’s afraid she just might slip out again.

“I’m glad,” you say, leaning towards her. You give her a quick peck on the lips. “It was confusing when you were Sanji.”

She grabs you by the shoulders and kisses you deeply - she tastes perfect, oh God, you missed this when you were apart for two years.

You kind of lied, though (because that’s still a thing you can do, even if you’re trying to stop, sorta). You’re not glad she’s back to normal - not completely glad - because you never got a chance to kiss her when she was in his body. To feel Nami and taste Sanji and to have them both in your arms at once.

It's a pretty brave (scary) thought, and you wonder if you'll ever get that chance.


	22. Top Secret (Usopp & Zoro)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usopp wants to be manly. Zoro already is... Or at least, Usopp thinks so.

Usopp clutched his notebook against his chest and pressed his back against the wall, heart pounding in his throat. He could hear the ominous creaking of his prey in the room to his right. Adrenaline set his veins on fire. Sweat trickled down his forehead and made his hair sticky. The secret held between his steady sniper’s hands burned.

Breathing deeply through his nose, Usopp dared to peek around the door frame and into the room.

“What do you want, Usopp?” Zoro grunted between his teeth, a thousand pounds of barbells lifted above his head.

Usopp squeaked and leaped out of the doorway, nearly sending himself tumbling down the crow’s nest ladder to the deck below. He caught himself with one hand, the other clutching his notebook fiercely.

Zoro let the barbells clank to the floor and sat up. He wiped forehead with the back of his hand and squinted at Usopp. His shirtless torso, scarred and _sculpted_ , shone with sweat. Usopp swallowed hard.

“What do you want?” Zoro repeated.

Usopp squawked again and scrambled down the ladder. A moment later, the creaking and clanging of Zoro’s weightlifting resumed.

Usopp looked down at his own skinny arms, tanned skin clinging to bones. Brown overalls that hung loose on his lanky frame.

He scowled and clutched his Top Secret How To Be Manly Notebook to his skinny chest and promised himself that someday, he wouldn’t have to be envious of Zoro.

* * *

3D2Y

* * *

Zoro was used to working out alone in the crow’s nest, so he was surprised the first time he climbed up to see Usopp lifting some of his lightest weights. Of course, Zoro’s lightest weights were the average’s person’s heaviest, so it was still a considerable feat.

Zoro leaned against the wall of the crow’s nest, arms crossed. Usopp grunted, tongue caught between his teeth, arms shaking with every heave. He got the weights over his head though. Every time.

When the weights finally clattered to the floor and Usopp doubled over, hands on his knees and heaving, he caught sight of Zoro. His eyes widened under the brim of his hat and he squawked, hands flapping. He dashed behind one of Zoro’s biggest barbells and peeked out from behind it.

“Don’t kill me,” he squeaked.

“You just ruined it,” Zoro said, pushing himself away from the wall. He shed the sleeves of his robe and tied his bandana around his forehead. He reached down with one arm and lifted the barbell over his head, revealing Usopp. “I was almost impressed.”

Usopp’s jaw dropped as he watched Zoro do a couple one-armed reps before setting the weight back down.

“Not like I was trying to impress you,” Usopp scoffed, crossing his arms and looking away.

Zoro remembered the skinny kid who would’ve boasted that he could lift twice as many pounds with one arm as Zoro ever could. He smiled.

“You’ve grown up,” he said.

Usopp shrugged and scrambled out of the crow’s nest.

* * *

Usopp pulled a dusty sheet off the broken full-length mirror he’d shoved in the back of his workshop two years ago. He put his hands on his hips and cocked his head. He tried to remember what Zoro had looked like two years ago. All the time he’d spent on Bowin Island, building up his strength, he’d been sure he was catching up to Zoro.

Then he actually _saw_ Zoro again, and in comparison he might as well have been the same skinny kid he’d been before.

He glanced over at the overflowing bookshelf next to him. A notebook was shoved between two mechanic’s manuals Franky had lent him. He pulled it out, smoothed its squashed pages.

 _Top Secret How To Be Manly Notebook_ was scrawled in his handwriting on the battered front cover. He grinned. Oh yeah. This.

He flipped it open and squinted at his cramped notes and messy doodles.

_Laugh at the enemy. Bleed a lot. Wear a bandana (note: black is a lot more badass). Be really strong. Look really, really strong._

He’d forgotten how many hours he’d spend spying on Zoro, taking note of everything that made the swordsman the kind of man Usopp had always wanted to be.

He picked up a dull pencil and sharpened it to a point. He tucked the notebook under his arm and headed back up to the deck. For old time’s sake.

* * *

Zoro stood in front of the wide mirror Franky had set up in the crow’s nest training room and scowled. He twisted his mouth down. Quirked the corner of one lip up. Admired the way the shadows cast over his face made his missing eye look even more sinister. The massive blind spot he’d acquired was almost worth it for how much it added to his terrifying look.

The back of Zoro’s neck prickled and he spun around, hands already reaching for his swords. Usopp was sitting in the doorway, scribbling something in a notebook spread across his knees.

“What d’you want, Usopp?” he growled.

Usopp looked up, pointed at Zoro with the chewed up end of his pencil.

“What were you doing?” he asked. It was almost night out and in the half-light of the crow’s nest it was hard to tell, but Zoro could almost swear Usopp looked like he was silently laughing.

“Nothing.” He scratched the back of his neck. “How long’ve you been here?”

“I’ve gotten a lot better at spying,” Usopp told him, puffing his chest out. “Long enough.”

Zoro scowled at him with the sinister look he’d perfected in front of the mirror. It wasn’t achieving its desired effect.

“You were practicing faces in the mirror, weren’t you?” Usopp asked. He unfolded his long legs (except they weren’t really so long and disproportionately lanky anymore) and come up beside Zoro. “You were, weren’t you?” he pressed.

Zoro snatched Usopp’s notebook. Usopp’s cockiness seeped out of him and he squeaked, grabbing at the book.

“Top Secret How To Be Manly Notebook,” Zoro read out loud.

“Nooooo,” Usopp moaned, trying to grab it back. Zoro put a hand on Usopp shoulder and shoved him out of the way.

He flipped it open to a surprisingly detailed sketch of… himself, shirtless, weights lifted above his head. His left eye looked intact, so this had probably been drawn two years before.

He continued to flip through the crumpled pages as Usopp looked on in horror. Almost every page was filled, every line and margin, with notes and doodles. And his name, over and over again. _Scowl more like Zoro. Drink more like Zoro. Be more like Zoro._

He finally handed the book back to Usopp, who shoved it in his bag. His shoulders slumped. He started to back out of the room. Zoro grabbed him by the arm.

“You wrote that before Kuma messed with us, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

Zoro let himself smile the sort of smile he hadn’t practiced in a mirror. “You did a pretty good job of following your own advice then.”

Usopp’s eyes widened.

“But here’s a tip: don’t be as much of a dumbass as Zoro.”

Usopp grinned. He straightened up. “Of course not,” he said. “The Great Captain Usopp would never be dumb.”

Zoro cuffed Usopp on the side of the head.

“Another tip: don’t call yourself that. It’s stupid.”

“Says the dumbass.”

Usopp was laughing as he ducked out of Zoro’s grasp, and Zoro wasn’t going entirely easy on him as he chased Usopp around the crow’s nest with his swords drawn.


	23. Fishnet Stockings (Franky/Usopp)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nami wasn't the first to dress him up, but she was the first to make him feel like he wanted this. Sanji reminded him that this wasn't right; Franky reminded him that it was. (Some headcanons about Usopp and gender.)

Overalls were nice because they were pretty genderless. Girls wore overalls. Boys wore overalls. Girls usually wore shirts under their overalls, but Usopp couldn’t really be bothered. Just because sometimes he felt more she than he didn’t mean he had to be meticulous about his appearance - that had never been his style. He was meticulous about lots of things - about making gadgets, about shooting accurately, about staying alive… but not about clothes.

It was better not to think too hard about what he was wearing.

* * *

Nami wasn’t the first to dress him up. He’d played around in his mother’s too-big dresses when he was little, but everyone did that, right? And maybe he’d worn them a few times when he wasn’t so little, but that was just in her memory.

Nami was the first to make him feel like he wanted this.

It was before the Grand Line, even. Sometime around Logue Town, probably. Sanji was buying food in port and Luffy had tagged along after him and Zoro had tagged along after Luffy. Nami and Usopp had stayed behind to watch the ship.

Well, Nami was watching her newest purchases more than the ship.

She was parading around the deck, showing Usopp her hundredth newest outfit when she stopped suddenly. She squinted at Usopp, poked his skinny sides and squeezed his noodly arms.

“Come with me,” she said. Usopp didn’t have a chance to remind her that they were both supposed to be watching for enemies. She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into her room.

She pointed him to a pile of skirts and dresses and panties, and watched with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her lips as Usopp dressed himself with less complaint than she’d been expecting.

“You look good,” she’d told him, as he’d stood there in a polka-dotted sundress that just reached his knees, black lace panties and a bra that didn’t fit his chest right underneath.

He still didn’t want to admit how happy that moment had made him.

It became a sort of game, a habit. Maybe the others didn’t know - he liked to think they didn’t, but with this crew you never knew.

Robin knew as soon as she joined the crew. Robin knew everything. She joined the fun, dressing Usopp in her own image, tight black leather and lace.

He enjoyed being their dress-up doll more than his pride would let him admit.

* * *

**3D2Y**

* * *

 

Usopp walked into the kitchen in nothing but a sundress, arms and feet bare, and Sanji nearly swallowed his cigarette.

“What the _hell_ are you wearing, shitty sharpshooter?” Sanji shouted, gripping the edge of the counter with white knuckles.

Usopp froze. Two years was a long time; long enough to forget that he hadn’t always paraded around proudly in whatever he liked.

“Clothes,” Usopp squeaked. He coughed, squared his shoulders and repeated more bravely, “My clothes.”

“You’re wearing a _dress_ ,” Sanji moaned. If Usopp hadn’t known any better he would have said Sanji sounded almost scared.

“Yes,” Usopp said. “Heracles gave it to me.”

Heracles, who hadn’t minded when Usopp had tentatively replaced his stretched-out clothes with a skirt, who’d even worn a dress sometimes, too, and had told Usopp that the bravest men were the ones who didn’t worry about being men at all.

“What kind of sick person did you train with?” Sanji shouted.

Usopp’s heart sank. A sick feeling built up in the pit of his stomach, a sickness he hadn’t felt in two years, a sickness he’d forgotten he was used to living with.

“Heracles wasn’t sick,” Usopp defended, but his shoulders were slumped in a way he’d promised himself they would never be again.

“Did we _all_ train with sick freaks?” Sanji huffed, ignoring Usopp.

“What? Who did you train with?”

“Shitty goddamn… shit…” Sanji grumbled. He lit a second cigarette and put it to his lips before realizing he was already smoking. He considered the second cigarette for a moment, then put them both in his mouth and stormed out of the room.

Usopp’s knees suddenly gave out and he found himself collapsing onto the dinning room bench. He looked down at his dress. It was a very _nice_ dress, a little longer than knee-length, a little tight across his broad chest but ruffled at the bottom, covered in a flower pattern that suited Bowin Island perfectly. Come to think of it, Usopp wasn’t entirely sure where Heracles found clothes on that isolated island, but Usopp had left the island with more clothing than he’d ever owned before. Heracles was a fan of costumes and flamboyance, capes and masks and armours, and Usopp couldn’t complain.

The door to the kitchen was suddenly slammed open and Usopp leapt to his feet.

“Where’s cook-bro?” Franky asked, filling up half the room with his wide shoulders and even larger personality.

Usopp wanted to dive under the table, wanted to hide until Franky left and he could sneak out and change back into something that he was _supposed_ to wear; dresses and skirts were only for nights when Nami decided she wanted a dress-up doll, and Usopp couldn’t believe he’d forgotten that.

“Hey, nice dress, bro,” Franky said. One massive red hand came down on Usopp’s shoulder and Usopp only flinched a bit.

“Nice?”

“Yeah, longnose-bro. Would be nicer with some stockings, though. Fishnet ones! Good for a pirate.”

Usopp almost choked on his own spit. If Sanji’s reaction had shocked him back to his senses, Franky’s had just thrown him for a loop he hadn’t been ready for.

“Fishnet stockings?” he squeaked. He coughed, because his voice was really getting out of hand, but Franky interrupted him before he could repeat himself.

“Fishnet stockings are superrr! My family back on Water 7 had the finest collection of fishnet stockings on the island.”

A vague memory of Franky’s family sprang to Usopp’s mind. He’d entirely forgotten the strange men with their fishnet stockings and starry body suits, because Water 7 was something he’d worked hard to forget in its entirety.

“I wore some myself a few times,” Franky mused. “Too much like pants though. I’ll stick to my super sea panties.”

Usopp watched as Franky wandered over to the fridge, unlocked the locks he’d installed for Sanji and took out a bottle of cola.

Usopp squared his shoulders, put one foot on the bench and crossed his arms proudly across his chest.

“Well, yes, this dress might look nice with stockings, but the Great Captain Usopp can make anything look fantastic!”

Franky laughed and tipped his foaming bottle at Usopp. “But the new and improved Battle Franky 37 can make anything look superrr!” he said, and whipped a ruffled pink shirt out of thin air, which was a talent Franky and Heracles seemed to share.

Franky threw the shirt on and posed dramatically, slopping soda onto the counter. Usopp grinned hugely and jumped onto the table, pointing at his chest with his thumb.

“No! The Great Captain Usopp is the most fashionable!”

Franky leapt over the counter and crashed to the floor next to the table. He reached up and grabbed Usopp around the waist, throwing him over his shoulder.

“Hey!” Usopp shouted.

Franky sat Usopp down on the counter, then scratched his chin, giving Usopp a once-over.

“Alright,” he said. “I’m feeling generous this week. The Great Captain Usopp is the most super!”

Usopp laughed and moved to jump off the counter, but one of Franky’s huge red hands grabbed him before he could. Franky pulled Usopp close to him and kissed him, tasting of cola and metal and everything Franky. He pulled his head back and nodded.

“Definitely the most super.”


	24. The Death of a King (Zoro & Luffy)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy is to be executed... but Zoro can't live without his captain.

Zoro’s hands shook as he set up the explosives, the explosives he’d stolen from Usopp’s shop, the explosives he’d oh-so-casually asked Franky to show him how to use. He could barely see what he was doing in the dim light of the small room beneath the stand. He was so familiar with the task, though, practicing it night after night since Luffy had told him what was to come, that he could probably have done it with his eyes closed.

The voices outside got louder. He heard heavy footsteps pound on the platform above him.

His blood ran cold. The execution was about to begin.

The explosives were set. He slunk out through the small door, bending down to get through the low, narrow opening. The crowd outside was thick and rowdy, shouting and jeering. Zoro had to push past loud, angry people, using elbows and fists to force his was through the masses.

His face was stoic as always, but his mouth was dry and his tan skin was slick with cold sweat.

When he finally saw his crew, packed into the middle of the crowd, he had to swallow hard against the vomit building in the back of his throat.

“Where were you?” Sanji shouted when he saw Zoro.

“No-” Zoro coughed, tried to clear his dry throat. “Nowhere.”

Sanji's eyes were heavy with suspicion, but he didn’t press the matter.

Zoro shoved his way past a few more people to come and stand next to his crew.

Nami was biting her lip, holding back tears as she stared up at her captain on the execution stage. Usopp wasn’t even making an effort to hold back. He cried loudly, a hand white-knuckled on Chopper’s shoulder. The young doctor was bawling, confused and frightened.

Robin was expressionless. Her eyes were glued to the platform, though. Beside her, Franky and Brook seemed to be holding each other up, loud sobs wracking their bodies.

Sanji took deep drags from his cigarette, clenching his fists and giving Zoro meaningful glares every so often.

A member of this very crew was responsible for Luffy’s current situation.

The crowd got louder as the prisoner was forced to his knees.

“Petty thievery. Disrupting the peace. Robbery. Arson. Murder. Rebellion against the World Government. Pirating,” the executioner shouted, listing the crimes of the criminal at his feet.

Zoro’s throat was tight. His hands continued to shake.

“This man has been wanted for years,” the executioner continued, his voice nearly drowned out by the screaming, jeering crowd. “But today, he will receive the punishment he deserves. Because justice always prevails.”

The crowd cheered as Luffy’s head was forced into place below the guillotine.

Zoro had to force himself to look his captain in the face.

Luffy’s expression never faltered. He was inches away from death, but never beaten down. A radiant smile stretched across his face.

Even though a member of his own crew had turned him in.

Zoro clamped  his eyes shut and waited for the explosives to go off. They had to go off.

Because a life without his captain wasn't a life worth living.

* * *

“Don’t try to save me,” Luffy had said, a few days before. “Don’t even try, Zoro.”

“Sencho, what are you doing? We can’t live without you,” Zoro had said. He'd grabbed Luffy’s arm as if he had the power to hold him back.

“Of course you can!” the captain had said, laughing. “You guys are all really strong. You don’t need me to take care of you.”

“We don’t _want_ to live without you,” Zoro corrected himself, his voice lower.

Luffy’s expression darkened, but only for a moment. Then his smile returned.

“But _I_ want you guys to live. And this is the only way.”

“No! It’s not the only way! We can-” Zoro shouted, but his captain cut him off.

“It is the only way. You know it,” Luffy said. His voice was uncharacteristically soft as he pried Zoro’s hand off of his arm. “The navy won’t stop until they have my head. But once they do, you guys can get away easy. Go far away and… live, okay?”

“No,” Zoro whispered. “Not without you.”

But his mouth was already dry, his hands were already shaking.

Because Luffy had that look that meant he’d made up his mind, and he wasn’t going to listen to anyone.

“I order you guys to live. You’ll be the new leader, Zoro. Take my place as captain.”

Zoro’s throat was too dry to talk as Luffy removed his straw hat and gently placed it on Zoro’s head.

“Okay?” Luffy said, with that radiant grin only he could pull off.

And Zoro could only nod his head, because in the end the captain always got what he wanted.

And then without looking back, Luffy walked through the doors and into the Navy office to turn himself in.

The captain of the crew turned himself in, traded his life to save the crew he loved so much.

And Zoro didn’t do anything to stop him. Just stood there, numb. The straw hat on his head was still warm from his captain’s body heat.

And then Zoro cried.

He cried again as he stood in the town square, tears leaking past his closed eyes as he waited for the explosives to go off.

He couldn’t save his captain. The captain had said it himself, had told him not to. But Zoro couldn’t live without his captain.

So they would all die. The thick, screaming, writhing crowd of pitiful people would die in an explosion like none even Usopp had ever created before. The first mate, the whole crew, would die alongside their captain.

And no one could do anything about it. Not even the captain himself.

And just before the explosives were set to go off, Zoro lifted his head, opened his eyes one last time and looked up at his captain’s radiant smile.

“Live, you guys!” Luffy screamed. “Live!”

And the captain’s head rolled.

The explosives didn’t go off.

Zoro fell to his knees, weak and dizzy. The screaming crowd engulfed him, swallowed him up. The crew was nearby, somewhere, but Zoro was alone.

He was alive. His captain was dead. And the explosives hadn’t gone off.

“What happened? What went wrong?” he screamed into his hands.

But he knew the answer. He hadn’t set the explosives right. He just _couldn’t_. He couldn’t force himself to go against what his captain had ordered. _I order you guys to live_.

Suddenly, there were hands on his shoulders, hands under his armpits, lifting him up and leading him away from the town square.

He was aware of his crew around him. Silent, but their presences were heavier and louder than the now-satisfied crowd.

He let his tears fall.

* * *

The silence was thick and heavy in Sunny’s kitchen. A few sat around the table. Sanji stood in front of the stove, not cooking, not moving. Robin leaned against a wall, her arms crossed.

Zoro sat on the floor, his head in his hands.

“He’s dead,” he said finally, breaking the silence after what seemed like hours.

Maybe it had been hours.

“He died for us, you know,” Zoro continued, not looking up. “The navy didn’t capture him. He turned himself in. To protect us.”

No one said a word. No one seemed surprised.

“They’re coming,” Robin announced, calmly, after what seemed like another eternity of silence. “The navy. They’ve just boarded the Sunny.”

The crew just had time to jump to their feet and grab their weapons before the door was thrown open and marines streamed in.

There was no war cry, no shouting or laughter as the crew threw themselves into battle.

But Luffy’s last words rang in everyone’s minds. _Live, you guys! Live!_

None of them would be captured today. None of them would die.

Because the captain had ordered them to live, and the captain always got what he wanted.


	25. Always Meant To Be (Robin/Straw Hats)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin is no stranger to sex, but it has never meant love. Not until she meets the Straw Hats. (NSFW)

Robin is no stranger to sex. She has had sex to bribe and to persuade, to pay a debt, to stay alive. Sex has never meant anything to her but just another way to survive.

It has never meant love.

When she first begins to travel with the Straw Hats, she does not think of sex. With them, at least, she doesn’t think she’ll need to use sex to stay alive.

Still, she has eyes all over the ship. She’s always needed to see all to feel safe, to _be_ safe.

She is flustered and shocked in a way she rarely is when her all-seeing eyes first see Luffy, Nami and Zoro making rough love in a tangle of limbs in the bath-house. She withdraws her eyes in a moment of panic, holds herself and wonders if she judged this crew wrong.

* * *

Later, she sees Zoro pressing Usopp against the side of the crow’s nest. They kiss deeply, grinding against each other, panting into each other’s mouths.

The next day, Sanji is pinned between Luffy and Nami’s bodies in the kitchen storeroom. They fondle him and kiss him and strip him of his clothes, and he breathes heavily into Nami’s shoulder and bucks against Luffy’s hips behind him.

That night, Chopper lies in a sleepy pile of his crewmates’ arms on the ship deck, a pile of lazy kisses and cuddles and easy laughter. Robin sits in the tangerine grove and observes.

* * *

It is only after Enies Lobby that Robin finally allows herself to melt into her crewmates’ open arms. She allows Luffy to kiss her ferociously on the mouth, allows Zoro and Usopp to wrap her in warmth and strength, holds Nami’s naked body pressed against her when they sleep, watches Sanji melt at her touch, cuddles Chopper tightly to her and presses kisses to his forehead.

Soon, Franky is being kissed and cuddled and coddled and made love to as well, and then Brook, and finally Robin realizes that sometimes she can’t tell where her body ends and those of her crewmates begin. She glows with their touch, their feel, their scent.

Robin is no stranger to sex. She has had sex to persuade, to bribe, to survive. And she has made love to those who love her as passionately, as unconditionally, as she loves them.

* * *

Technically, it started with Luffy and Zoro. They were already having sex by the time Nami joined them. She woke up to their noises the first night she spent on their ridiculous dinghy, as an only slightly inebriated Nami tells Robin when she asks one night.

But it is really more accurate to say it started when the Straw Hats started. Nami tells Robin that she isn’t sure if Luffy and Zoro ever intended for what they had to be exclusive… she isn’t sure _they_ know. She still maintains they discovered sex together by accident, and liked it, and decided to keep doing it. Knowing her captain and his first mate, Robin is inclined to agree.

Nami joined them in their bed (not much more than a pile of blankets on the floor at the time) shortly after joining up with them. Luffy and Zoro did it because they trusted her; Nami did it because at the time she thought she had to to make them trust her.

The first time Usopp stumbled upon his crewmates in the act (and Nami tells this story with something like a chuckle, and her cheeks are flushed red, although it might be because of the third bottle of wine she and Robin are splitting at this point) he was shy, and scared, and embarrassed— Sanji was even more so, the first time _he_ stumbled across them.

The first time the five of them ever fell together in a mash of limbs and lips and hot drunk kisses and frantic hands and feverish, excited touches was after the defeat of Arlong, and Nami realized then that the Straw Hats didn’t make love to earn trust, but because of trust. Trust, and adrenaline, and a love and companionship so intense and explosive that it could never be contained to two people.

They had sex again after Logue Town, in the relief and thrill of knowing their captain was still alive. And again after entering the Grand Line, in drunken and excited celebration. And then it seemed to happen all the time, sometimes the five of them, sometimes two or three. Whenever they were restless or exploding with happiness or drowning in sadness— or perhaps just when it was hot out, or bath night, and everyone was barely clothed and became suddenly aware of how _attractive_ their crewmates were.

When Vivi joined them, she fit into their tangle of limbs and love like a puzzle piece. When Chopper joined them (despite how human he could sometimes be, he was still a reindeer, still wired like a reindeer, and the idea of sex with humans held no interest for him) he fell in love with the crew in his own way, with cuddles and chaste kisses.

At this point, Nami’s story begins to peter out. She sips sleepily at her wine glass, and laughs while she mentions how Sanji has always maintained (and still does, the fool) that he only _really_ has sex with the girls, that it doesn’t count that there are other men around as long as there is a lady between them. But Robin and Nami have both seen Franky and Usopp pressing kisses to Sanji’s jaw and mouth and stomach while Luffy and Zoro massage and prod at his shoulders and his back and his ass, and Sanji’s eyes are half-closed and glazed in bliss and love, and they both know that Sanji’s the only one who believes his own lies.

Nami giggles as she lets her head drop gently into her arms, closing her eyes and humming to herself. Robin retrieves a blanket and wraps it gently around Nami’s shoulders.

She knows the rest of the story herself, more or less.

She saw how very long it took for Usopp (after Water 7, after Enies Lobby, after Robin finally let herself fall deeply in love with her crew), how long it took for him to feel that he deserved the love that he received. For him to receive love and kisses and attention instead of only trying to give, give, give to those who maintain that he is forgiven, that he is _loved_ , that he has always been loved.

Sogeking, not in name or in costume, but it is startlingly easy to tell when Usopp has become Sogeking in mind, made frequent appearances in the bedroom (and the bath-house and the crow’s nest and the aquarium bar and wherever else the crew decided they had had enough of not touching each other). And while Sogeking’s sexual prowess is far superior to Usopp’s, it was a joy and a relief when Sogeking slowly faded, and the crew could once again hold their _own_ sniper in their arms.

And Robin had watched as Franky and Brook found their own places in the Straw Hats’ strange and carnal romance.

Franky, with his free-spirited and freely-loving Family, was no stranger to love and sex like the Straw Hats’. But he was careful with them, at first. He was old, and perhaps too experienced, and over-bearing, and they were _so special_. But they fit him into their puzzle with their own hands, their own kisses and their own love, and he had thrown himself into their love with all of his characteristic vigour.

Brook was lost and confused at first— he had forgotten, after so, so long, how this worked, how _he_ worked, and he worked differently now, but he fit into their puzzle just the same. He laughed as loudly as Luffy during sex, and somehow it seemed right.

Later, when Robin is kissing a cyborg’s lips, and carding her fingers through a skeleton’s hair, arching into the touches of a grumpy swordsman and a high-strung cook, with her navigator and her captain and her sharpshooter in a tangle of limbs on her left, and a reindeer a soft and sleepy weight against her right side, she realizes that all she really needs to know is that she is exactly where she was always meant to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the very last chapter in this drabble collection! These are all the One Piece fics I wrote back in 2011-2014. If I write any new ones, I'll probably post them as their own stories.
> 
> So thank you to everyone who read these short fics! I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.


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